Get Real Love

The word authentic gets bandied about like a brand name or marketing tool these days. Authentic churches, authentic music, authentic books, even authentic jeans. Most of it is paper thin and illusory, and easily blown to shreds when the storms of life come along. Most of what passes for “real” today is a house of cards.

Danny and Annie Perasa, wouldn’t be on a poster for an “authentic marriage” conference. But they are the real deal. Danny—a balding gnome of a man with a nearly toothless grin” and Annie, a kind, plain woman with an energetic smile—know more about love and romance than “all of Hollywood’s leading men put together.”
Danny and Annie, who got engaged on their first date, have become the public face of NPR’s Story Corp—a series of interviews done by ordinary people.

NPR featured a piece on them today, about their first date, their 28-year marriage, and how their love sustains them in the face of Danny’s terminal cancer.

The motto of Story Corp is that “listening is an act of love.” And the project’s director said that Danny and Annie came to personify Story Corp—the eloquence, grace, power and poetry in the words of people you might not notice walking down the street.”

A few thoughts on love from Danny, who writes a love note everyday to Annie:

“I always feel guilty when I say I love you, because I say it so often. I say it to remind you that, as dumpy as I am, it’s coming from here (the heart). It’s like hearing a beautiful song from a busted old radio. And it’s nice of you to keep the radio around the house.

“When a guy is happily married, no matter what happens at work, no matter what happens [during] the rest of the day, there’s a shelter when you get home. There’s a knowledge, knowing that you can hug somebody without them throwing you downstairs and saying, ‘Get your hands off me.’ Being married is like having a color television set. You never want to go back to black and white.”

"I always said the only thing I have to give you was a poor gift and that's myself. And I always gave. And if there's a way to come back and give it, I'll do it."

Listen to this story. Then go and do likewise