Here’s the formal relationship: My wife’s cousin knows the mother of Micah Garen, the American journalist who was being held hostage in Iraq until yesterday.

That sentence is true. But here’s the truth:

You know how it can be with cousins: they are the closest relatives you’re allowed to dislike, but they can also be a friend so close that you share DNA. My wife and her cousin are friends like that. And Micah’s mother and my wife’s cousin are both members of a small craft group that is a central part of my cousin’s life.

So, although I am three or four degrees away from Micah Garen, I feel directly connected to him through two people I love, a close collegial relationship, and the love of a mother.

Some degrees are closer than others.