The book lent twice can connect people who never meet each other.

Something passed from hand to hand makes a quiet acquaintance between people who will never sit in the same room. Your notes in the margin get read by someone you have not met, the coffee ring belongs to a third person, and the book becomes a thread running through several lives at once. Connection does not always require introduction.

Lend something out this week without asking for it back on a date. Write your name in the front if it is a book, or say who lent it to you before you lend it on. The chain is more interesting than the object.