Introduction
What Is Love?
In the Prologue to Love and Dreams Charlotte asks Uncle Minor what love is. He responds simply. No one could answer
that question, he tells her.
Uncle Minor knows more about love than he wishes to tell Charlotte at the time. As the author, I could have allowed
him to express more of his thinking on the subject. But, if I had, this novel wouldn’t have taken the shape I envisioned.
Other characters were going to appear. Those characters were going to fill the pages of Love and Dreams with their stories.
It would fall to them to probe the riddle of love and build an answer to Charlotte’s question.
Fiction has always given us characters that serve our needs and help us to observe human life with objectivity, who
ask us to question our beliefs or give us models for new roles. I think of the characters of Love and Dreams as explorers
who have set out on an expedition in search of love. They send back to us accounts of their discoveries, their experiences,
and the creative solutions by which they have survived the adventure. In other words they give the rest of us an advantage.
They have alerted us. As a result, when we travel through that terrain we will not lose time in finding our way, or
in bewilderment. We will not be slowed by a lack of courage for, in the course of their communication with us, the characters
of this book are our guides and inspiration. At least that has been my hope in providing my readers with this story.
In the Prologue Uncle Minor spoke the few words I required of him. But if you were wondering what he might have said
had he not been inhibited by me, he would have said the following:
“Totty, I don’t think anyone can tell you what love is. But I’ll try. All that we hold as precious speaks of
love: the romantic partner, the heartwarming friendship, memories of those gone on, the home we’ve made, the garden
we’ve grown, the pet or hobby, the goal of recognition as an artist, the success of the business one has created
. . . Love is the passion we have for life itself.”
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