Coincidences Favor the Prepared Mind

We were at a bookstore we visit only every couple of years, Old Number Six Book Depot in Henniker, NH. It is one of those well-organised but overcrowded establishments with a proprietor that looks like a Hogwarts shopkeeper. We visit used bookstores mostly when Ben and Jen come up from Texas. Another couple came in while we were there, and as the woman was in the children's section (we were armed with two children's librarians ourselves), we chatted with her. 

Tracy: Where are you from?

Woman: Brookline.

AVI: Oh, I just met someone from Brookline on a zoom call week before last, who runs the Inklings presentation group on Fridays.  Roy Waller.

Woman: That's my husband.

AVI: Over there?

So I went over to talk to Roy Waller, chuckling to my son who has watched these coincidences occur all his life and is resigned to them by now. I started to explain to Roy, who broke in and said "One degree of separation."  "That's right," I said.  That's my goal."

Ben also chimed in to recount the time I spent an entire cab ride trying to connect with a cabbie in Budapest, and I reminded him of the limo driver from the Dominican Republic. I live my life this way, and it's very satisfying.