Love and Stories

“Where is love?” sings young Oliver in Lionel Bart’s musical rendition of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

In the story, Oliver is a young workhouse orphan who escapes to London. There he falls in with a troop of thieves and other assorted villains. He is, in many ways, alone and lonely and wishing for the one thing all humans need more than any other–love.

Love. That’s one of those abstract nouns. A concept rather than a concrete thing you can hold. And love can certainly be fleeting. Or can it?

I suppose that depends on how you define it. To me, real love isn’t fleeting. Real love lasts. Real love makes us better, gives us strength, grows, shares. It’s warm rather than hot, supportive rather than stifling, forgiving rather than vindictive, self-sacrificing rather than selfish. It’s less about the bounds of relationships than it is about the bonds.

This month’s stories explore some of the many faces of love.

We hope you love them as much as we do.