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Adapted from the book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. Copyright © 2009 by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler. Reprinted with permission of Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. http://www.connectedthebook.com/
Nicholas and his wife, Erika, like to joke that they had an arranged marriage, South Asia–style. Although they lived within four blocks of each other for two years and were both students at Harvard, their paths never crossed. Erika had to go all the way to Bangladesh so that Nicholas could find her. In the summer of 1987 he went to Washington, D.C., where he had grown up and gone to high school, to care for his ailing mother. He was a medical student, single and, he foolishly thought, not ready for a serious relationship. His old high school friend, Nasi, was also home for the summer. Nasi’s girlfriend, Bemy, who had come to know Nicholas well enough that her gentle teasing was a source of amusement for all of them, was also there. She had, as it turned out, just returned from a year in rural Bangladesh, doing community development work.
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8 Comments
Add CommentWhat's next, a SciAm investigation of VooDoo?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust what we need, more breeders.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne can fall in love, date, and have a rather happy and varied physical relationship w/o procreating.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisImpossible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Combing through your social network is the most fruitful—and most common—way of finding the love of your life"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this...unless your network is made up of people you don't like.
My mother could have saved you a lot of ink. Back in the 1960s when I was a teenager, she often told me, "Who you love depends on who's around."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI doubted at no time about 'IT,' so I don't see any risk, whatsoever that I can fail to mention 'IT' to you, if It IS anything, it's a question to be in harmony with Thyself, one, whereon The Corrupt are still 'IT' welcome to look at & a repetition of, who is who & to count on, whatever's what, why & when, note: Quite difficult math evaluations, so that I can of course become & e.g. like you both, your lawyer, too believe in & so on, greetings, arentved@in.com, there to be 'IT' continued.
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