Strangers Unite

I'm not sure what it is about humans that draws us to one another through commonality.  While in the Sistine Chapel, I saw 2 people wearing KU paraphernalia.  I wanted to bellow, "Rock Chalk", but it just didn't seem appropriate.  Later while grabbing gelato, my eye caught a brown and gold hat decorated with a cowboy.  The words, "Go Pokes" were out of my mouth in a split second.  The couple was from outside of Casper, Wyoming and they seemed as excited to see me as I was to see them.  We were complete strangers and yet the common connection made us immediate friends.  I am happy to say that I'm not the only one in this world that experiences this phenomena.  While we were in Rome, Palermo, one of the Italian "futbal" (aka soccer) teams, was playing in the Italian cup for the first time in 40 years.  The game was in Rome and the energy was tangible.  I couldn't help but smile as I thought of the 2008 National Championship game that KU won with Mario's magic shot.  I watched the game in Allen Fieldhouse with approximately 1500 of my closest strangers and friends.  The atmosphere was electric maybe something like the Spanish Steps on May 30, 2011 (see video below).