MORE Story Hour Returns on May 6 with ‘The Butterfly Effect’

Melrose Organizes for Real Equality will hold a new Melrose Story Hour (like The Moth, but local) at Temple Beth Shalom on Sunday, May 6, at 4 p.m. The theme will be “The Butterfly Effect,” a reference to the mathematical phenomenon of a small change that has a large effect on outcomes.

The Melrose Free Press has an article with some background, including a fuller explanation of the theme:

The theme this time, “The Butterfly Effect,” asks speakers to relate how seemingly small acts led to major changes in their lives or the lives of others. The idea was broad enough that pretty much everyone could come up with an experience that fit, but also offered the potential for some really meaningful stories.

“There are some stories where it’s not necessarily someone doing something for them, but just a moment in their lives where they realized, ‘This matters more than I thought,’” Rupert said. “Something happens and it’s like, ‘Whoa, I need to reevaluate how I move forward.’ But a lot of the themes really are sort of a small act of kindness that probably that person never thought about again, or did just because it’s what you do.”

True to the overall theme, the consequences of such small acts are often far out of proportion to the initial effort involved.

“A lot of folks are like, ‘Because this person did XYZ for me, I now do a similar thing in my job, or in the way I interact with my family,’” Rupert said. “So you’re really seeing the butterfly effect. It’s not just like, ‘I had a better day,’ but, ‘Because of that, I named my child something,’ for example.”