According to family lore, when my great-grandmother was 16, she walked right up to my very handsome great-grandfather and said to him, “Catch me, I’m a butterfly.” It was a bold move for a short, shy woman who never drove a car or wrote a check in her life. (Though, she was sassy. She once got mad at AT&T and didn’t use the telephone for a whole month.) But she saw something she wanted and went after it, nerves be damned. And she got it, too. My great-grandparents were married 59 years. The point is, love changes us. It makes us happy and brave and crazy—and it makes for a great story.
For this year’s Love Issue, we tapped into the power of lore by teaming up with local monthly storytelling group Big Blue Door. Creators Joel and Jennifer Jones provided seven storytellers (two C-VILLE staffers included), and a theme of “crazy little thing called love” as a jumping-off point. The writers did the rest, weaving together tales of love, loss, and going postal. The best part of every experience, though, is in the sharing, because it means the story never dies. And, in that way, neither does the love.—Caite White
Hear for yourself
Don’t take our (written) word for it. Head to Woolly Mammoth (1304 E. Market St.) on Thursday, February 20 at 8pm to hear seven more “Crazy little thing called love” stories from local storytellers. February’s lineup features Lauren Ballback, Jamie Dyer, Charlie Gilliam, Clare Terni, Maggie Thornton, Debra Weiss, and Broocks Willich.
And, if you can’t wait, listen to Ray Nedzel, Miller Murray Susen (34:40), and Tom Clay telling stories at past Big Blue Door performances.