4.25.2010

Short Love Stories

I'm re-reading Robert Fulghum's Uh-Oh, and there's a brief chapter on "Short Love Stories." I'm such a sucker for this kind of thing. You know what I mean-- a brief connection in a coffee shop with a stranger, a shared laugh in the produce aisle. They're the "ships passing in the night" moments. They don't undermine our real relationships, they just make life a little sweeter. We can't always tell these stories, and there are some people who don't understand that they're simultaneously precious and innocuous. Here are some wee examples of my own:
  • I moved to Bethesda, MD in January of my junior year of high school. I walked through downtown each morning on my way to school, using saying hello to the people I passed. On Valentine's Day that winter, a young man was waiting on a corner with a flower. We'd said hello a couple of times, and it turned out he was waiting for ME! Of course, we quickly sorted out that he was in college and I was 16, but it was a charming introduction to my new home.
  • The sweet middle school saxophone player who said I looked like a gypsy. (To my 8th grade self, that was a compliment.)
  • The handsome toll booth worker who laughed and teased me about getting lost, and showed me where to make a U-turn.
There's a whole subcatagory of country music about this-- my favorite being Conway Twitty's "Tight-Fittin' Jeans," but there are many.

Can I hear your little love stories?

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for making my morning, Di. I love honky-tonk!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mrs. M6:41 PM

    Of COURSE you do, Charlotte! (So do I. One of my favorite parts about driving through Ohio is the classic country station.)

    ReplyDelete

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."
-Saint Molly Ivins