How Short Stories Can Teach Us to Be Present

The other day I was stuck in a long, unmoving line at the neighborhood post office. I debated leaving and trying my luck another day, but having just published my first collection of short stories, I decided it was an opportunity as a writer to practice observing my surroundings.

Still living in the shadow of a pandemic, I was accompanied by a dozen masked strangers, impatience welling in their eyes as they clutched onto envelopes and packages, staring down at phone screens or up at the saggi...