Back in college, a classmate of mine recreated a psychology study where participants read either the story of the Good Samaritan or some neutral text and then encountered a person in distress. The goal of the experiment was to see if reading the story of the Good Samaritan affected the likelihood of the person stopping to help someone in distress. I was the person in distress for the experiment. I wore shabby clothes, and when the person approached I started coughing and the fell down. I don’t know the results of the experiment, but I just remember while some people stopped to ask if I was okay, most just walked by, seeming not to notice.

For my efforts, I was given a gift certificate at the college bookstore. With that, I picked up a copy of a new released collection of short stories by John Cheever. Life is full of these short stories.

Today, I got up early. I went to the transfer station for the first time in several weeks. April was a long month. I said hello to various people there and wondered, what there short stories were. I then drove to Meriden where CHC sponsored a 5K race to raise funds for mental health services. Again, there were so many stories there behind the running numbers.

The next stop was Putnam, where my daughter Miranda was helping with a Tiny House workshop. I met various people involved with Tiny Houses, and the stories were a little closer to the surface. Then, I proceeded to visit my boss in his suburban subdivision. From the outside, it looked like just about any other house, but my boss collects magical apparatus, and each item could have been a John Cheever short story.

I drove home, thinking about the stories I’d crossed paths with today. I thought about writing this blog post. Then, I received a text message to stop by campaign headquarters, where another set of stories was waiting.