In a restaurant during a lengthy visit to Maine several years ago, my wife, Fyllis, and I met a local woman with whom we struck up a conversation and found we had a lot in common. Over the following weeks, she invited us to dinner several times, we met her neighbors, and we went to places and events we otherwise probably would have missed.
On a more recent trip to Cairo, Egypt, we engaged in conversation with a woman who had a vegetable stall at a farmers’ market. After we paid for our purchase, she asked if we would like to spend time at her farm. The next morning, she and her husband picked us up at our hotel, and we enjoyed the day picking fresh produce from their garden, helping to prepare a bountiful lunch, and exchanging stories about their lives and ours.
