In these difficult times it feels like good sense to seek out a little tenderness, as the classic Otis Redding song goes. There’s plenty of tenderness to be found in the new publication ‘Tiny Love Stories’.
This book is a collection of some of the best personal essays that have been submitted by readers to the New York Times for inclusion in the newspaper’s weekly column entitled ‘Modern Love’.
There is one stipulation. The essays have to be one hundred words or less!
The book features some 175 stories. What stands out, above all, is how much lyricism and heart these authors have put into their minimalist works.
This collection reminds readers eloquently that there are many forms of love. Love can be expressed in so many different ways.
A sister writes of how envious she is of her boyfriend’s girlfriend. He spends so much time with her. She yearns to ask her – what does he talk about, what is he like with your family? A whole host of questions. She yearns for the brother she has never got to know.
A blind woman has to choose a guide dog as a selection of guide dogs go around the room. One particular guide dog, Aslan, shows such tenderness towards her, pressing his golden head against her hip, and gently opening the door for her, that she really only has the one choice.
A woman has spent a few days back at her parents place and slept in her old bedroom. She enjoyed her time with her parents and her old chihuahua Timothy. Waiting at the airport for her flight she gets a text message from her mum with a photo of Timothy lying on her bed, waiting for her to arrive home.
An elderly grandmother, separated by distance, receives a phone call from her 14 year old granddaughter who has just purchased her first mobile. She talks to her about a holiday to Paris that they took together. The grandmother is over the moon.
A young American woman who had only recently overcome her battle with anorexia – her body had healed but her mind was still at war- decides to travel to Italy. She falls in love with Italy. “Italy charmed me like a lover I hadn’t expected to meet. Rome courted me on cobblestone streets. Capri caressed me with its sea. Florence spoon-fed me gelato.”
An Indian woman describes the conflict she has between her two great loves. “In America, I play music to fill silences. For me India is no longer a country; it’s an ache. I left the place I love for the man I love. It’s not a complaint. I’m only saying that sometimes, the most unconditional of loves are also the most inconvenient.”
A woman is spending another night in hospital by the side of her dying husband. He is barely hanging on to life. She whispers to him, please hang on, I don’t want to drive home in the dark. With the first light he takes his last breath.
An Indian woman recounts her white skinned American husband’s struggle with his family who did not want him to marry a dark skinned woman.”We fought to be together. Twenty years and a son later, Nishanth still sees me, not my complexion.”
A mother gives her daughter some sage relationship advice. “Relationships are like shoes. No matter how beautiful they are or how much you love them, if they don’t fit, there will be pain with every step. No one will know it but you.” The daughter leaves her long, up and down relationship.
A married couple keeps a large gratitude jar. Through each year they drop in scribbled little post it notes of gratitude expressing how happy they are that they are together. They are supposed to wait till New Year’s Day to open the jar. In recent years she just opens the jar when the impulse strikes her. “Why wait to remind ourselves how good life is together?”
To end, this is my favourite story. So quirky…
“Despite a drawn out divorce, I frequently have reveries about a certain endearing trait of my former wife’s. Where half asleep she would often make funny statements in her altered state. Example No. 1. She : ‘Turn off the light”. Me : ‘I did”. She : “No”. She points to the window. Me: ‘That’s the moon”. She “Then turn off the moon”. Example 2, my favourite. As she snuggled up to me, eyes closed, semiconscious, she murmured. “I love you more than anything.” A pause. “Except lobster.” Gene
Little in size and big in heart, ‘Tiny Love Stories’ makes for a great gift.
Tiny Love Stories : True Tales Of Love in 100 words or less. Edited by Daniel Jones and Miya Lee.Publisher : Artisan. ISBN 9781579659912