this is a nice topic, aurora. +1 to you.
here is a thought i had a year ago. sorry i know it’s not a story, but a powerful thought i had.
i sat by a table once, by a modern orthodox wedding, with other chassidish cousins. there were several of us relatives there who were all different types. chassidish, modern orthodox, yeshivish etc. yet everyone was having a great time shmoozing with each other and enjoying each others’ company. it was almost a surreal scene, but it was so beautiful. then i realized something incredible that changed the way i look at yidden. and that is that we pretty much are all the same.
we might dress differently, talk hebrew with different accents, and have a different nussach in davening. but at the end of the day we are all the same. we differ in literally only a handful of mitzvos – but then that’s it! if only we would mingle and shmooze, like we did that wedding night and just get to know each other, we would see how much the same we really are.