How an email mixup led to me befriending my namesake – and a glimpse of a wholesome second life | Dale Berning Sawa

A message meant for another Dale, sent by his 88-year-old sister, revealed the fascinating world of like-named people

For a while now, I have been getting the strangest emails. They concern golf rules, carpenter bees and CPR short courses I've not signed up for at local fire departments I could not place. I have been on the receiving end of a round-robin addressed to all the stoners".

The explanation is that I share my name - and therefore a similar email address - with a stranger half way round the world from me. Random email is the bane of everyone's existence; I could tell you how many actual thousands of unread messages I have, but no one needs more pain. What does alleviate it, though, is any inkling that a real person may be present - and there is something fascinating about discovering people who share our name, as though we are connected by something more than pure coincidence.