One of the conceits of the 18th and 19th century novel -- and also TV these days -- is the unlikely coincidence which ties the plot together (the far-flung nephew who falls in love with the daughter of the protagonist's professor or whatever), but also produces the impression of order in the universe and safety in the world.
Over the course of the pandemic, one of the few ways I've been able to keep Graham's driving skills sharp is to have him drive me to pick up take out in the evenings. One evening a month or so back Graham had been working a Quiz Bowl tournament online all day: asking questions or scoring rounds. He gets paid for this, $5 an hour or so. He told me he had been paired with a guy named Sasha who, he told me, was a freshman at U of Illinois Champaigne-Urbana and had been in a dorm but had needed to move home after a few weeks because of COVID, and his parents lived very close to campus.
Little bells started going off inside my head. My friend Lilya, who was in my program at Columbia, had a boy named Sasha who had gone to Champaigne-Urbana but was forced home after a few weeks... I will spare you the play by play, but a couple of quick texts confirmed that of course it was her son who had been Graham's partner for the day.
Interestingly enough, the overall impression this coincidence left on me was that there is order in the universe and that I am safe. There's something nice about running into people somewhat randomly in the big world.
Which is the point -- at the end of the day -- of casting a wide net and engaging with lots of people in lots of different ways -- talking, listening, reading, observing, watching foreign TV shows and movies, etc. Even though Dunbar's Law remains operative at all times and limits our ability to go deep with lots of people, there's still a virtue to engaging with The Many, so that The One may show its face.
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