The small-world effect is the observation that one can find a short chain of acquaintances connecting almost any two people on the planet.
Denna Lambert is a Greenbelter, although our paths had never crossed. In writing a story for the News Review, I had a chance to interview her at a judo clinic. Her dog guide was with her and kept careful watch as Denna practiced the judo grappling and throwing techniques.
When I mentioned that my husband is blind, she got very excited. “Is it Rev. Ray?” she asked. It turns out that one of Rev. Ray Raysor’s previous jobs was working for Seeing Eye Dog Guide School – the oldest school, founded in 1929, supplying trained dog guides for blind people. In his travels around the country he had visited Denna’s school in Arkansas, her home state. During his presentation when he said that a dog guide affords you independence and that you can travel independently all over the country, Denna said she made up her mind that she was going to get a dog guide in spite of her father’s fear of dogs. Angie is her third dog guide and it must be working ’cause Greenbelt is a long way from [Ar]Kansas, Toto.
