In one of my favorite books, Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," there's a belief in a religion in the book (called Bokononism) in a thing called a "karass." As defined by the book: A karass is a "team [of people] that do[es] God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing". Humanity is organized into many such teams. One can try to discover "the limits of [one's] karass and the nature of the work God Almighty has had it do ... but such investigations are bound to be incomplete."

Well, aside from the God's Will stuff, I think I somewhat "believe" in karasses. More or less. I believe there are certain people in this world that coincidence or fate or whatever forces our lives to intertwine with each other, when there seems to be no apparent reason for it, or we may not even truly notice.

What makes me think of this? Well, it's silly, I'll tell you that right now...but it's odd and does truly fit this definition, if you will.

A certain former NU quarterback, we'll call him Zak K., has come, once again, within reach of me, in terms of communication. Let me tell you the ways in which I've had "access" to Zak K. in the past.

1. Obviously, we both went to NU at the same time, and although I didn't meet the guy, I'm sure we probably passed each other on Sheridan Rd. sometime.
2. The ol' QB is from the Southwest suburbs, and his cousin brings his car in to my dad's work for maintenance. Through that connection, I got the ol' boy to do a draft diary leading up to the draft for us and talked to him on the phone and everything. Cool enough...
3. He was never selected in the draft, but he did end up on my Miami Dolphins, so if I'd needed an interview of a practice-squad QB, I probably could have buzzed him and had no problems.
4. Today, my coworker announces that the ol' QB plays basketball with a friend of theirs, and the two of them want to play on the team my coworker has put together, of which I am not a part, sadly.

Now, of course, Zak K. hasn't really talked to me other than when I had the draft journal gig going...he probably wouldn't even remember me. But it's odd that he keeps showing up in the periphery of my life. Don't you think? I sure think so.