Even though the details are different, in some ways the underlying premises of these stories are the same:

How do we survive this thing called life? How do we survive together?

Or, we could ask the questions another way: How can be happy? How can we balance sense & sensibility?

Note that even if I wasn’t using Jane Austen’s definitions of “sense” (as good judgment, wisdom, or prudence) and “sensibility” (as sensitivity, sympathy, or emotionality) and/or even if we phrase these questions in a different way, our answers become the “healing stories” Matthew Sanford referenced in his first autobiography.