“Love is all around.”
“Love is a many splendored thing.”
“Love hurts.”
“Love enures.”
“Love is.”
Inspiration for this monthly post comes at me nearly constantly. My playlists for my iPod are chock full of love songs of all kinds.
Every book I pick up, no matter what the genre, I spot a love story of some kind.
Each movie or television show I watch I spy a romance or storyline that showcases love of a particular variety.
Love. Familial love, friend love, romantic love, companion love, pet love, self-love (the last two not the creepy kind) and all other kinds of love are fascinating to me. I am magnetically drawn to love.
The optimism that love expresses is addictive. And, as the person who fearlessly searches out Simple Joys daily, finding love is a decidedly wonderful thing that I never tire.
Here are this month’s offerings for “Love: Part VI”.
Music
“Iris” The Goo Goo Dolls This song spoke to me the very first time I heard it which is rare. I’m slow to new music. But the music plus the lyrics reached out to me and captured my senses. Although played in the movie City of Angels, it is not that movie I think of when I hear this song. It is far more universal, yearning, and potent than that movie. Still a favorite.
“Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away” Phil Collins I’m not even sure if this song was a hit or when or how I found it, but it was another one that I was instantly attracted. First, I like Phil Collins. He is, in essence, an Everyman when he sings plaintively about love gone wrong, awry, or, occasionally, right. This song just captivates me as I imagine the scenario between lovers.
“Living Inside Myself” Gino Vanelli A song from my past that I rediscovered on a compilation album my husband ordered for me off an infomercial I would watch constantly while nursing my second baby years ago.
The lyrics, while rather simplistic and repetitive (the sign of a gigantic hit in the 1980s) are still powerful to me and Vanelli’s voice is passionate.
Movies
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Aragorn and Arwen’s love story is palpable, longing, real, and defies the borders of time and space. They are truly forever connected.
Finding Nemo – The obvious love story here is between father and son in all its complicated, frustrating, and harrowing turns. But the love story between Marlin and Dory is beautiful, too. My eldest son and I still debate whether, at the end of the movie, Marlin and Dory are just friends (his theory) or a couple who are in love (my theory). Regardless, we both agree they love one another.
Tombstone – Again, the obvious love story is between Wyatt Earp and the actress who steals his heart, Josephine Marcus. But I see a love between Wyatt and Doc Holliday that is a mix of friendship and brotherhood and stronger than most any shown on film.
Books
Junior Johnson: Brave in Life – My selection of NASCAR books may seem odd, but those are the books that surround my nightstand nowadays. But as stories go, love is ever-present.
In this book I was almost ready to give up my search for love when, toward the end, Junior tells about leaving his first wife and finding love with his current wife who he has now been with for two decades.
Their relationship defied odds – she is thirty years his junior (no pun intended). But, they have raised two children together, an act that saw Junior happily walk away from NASCAR to do.
His matter-of-fact statements about his wife and life with her may not be mushy or romantic, but still unmistakably show the depth of love he feels for her.
A Treasury of Curious George – Listen, I know my selections are quirky at best, but this is what my life is filled with at present. I don’t fight it or fake it, I just go with it!
The Man in the Yellow Hat obviously loves George, the curious little monkey, and vice versa. The misadventures can be scary, strange, and downright silly, but the two always want to reunite.
They truly do share a very sweet and special love.
Bill Engvall: Just a Guy – Engvall is one of the comedians from The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, but my husband and I had been watching him for many years before that group was formed.
When we came across this book we bought it and really enjoyed it.
As comedians will often tell you, their past isn’t always so funny or nice, and Bill’s isn’t fairy tale perfect.
But I took away a sense of the love of family he has from the way he was raised, the love of his wife, and the innate nice guy he is.
It is a complete joy for me to explore and share love through media on this post. As we enter the second half of the year I am thinking of broadening the media from which I examine.
As with any post of mine, your feedback is not only welcome it is appreciated. I am inspired by what inspires my readership as well, so please feel free to leave your impressions of love in music, books, movies, and the like.
Join me tomorrow as we discover delightful recipes on Tantalizing Thursday on Chief 187™Chatter.
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