This morning I was feeling like s***, after several days of feeling progressively worse, and couldn’t sleep. And when I feel sick, I generally also feel pretty depressed. (The line from a Jacques Brel song that translates “laughs the devil” describes it.) I started reading TG stories, which is my main way of making myself feel better. This time it was mainly ones by Bailey Summers, and I noticed that all of her (since I don’t know any better, I will use female pronouns until corrected) stories, at least the ones I read, are IMHO love stories.
By “love,” I don’t (just) mean the usual moon-june-ferris-wheels tropes, but also when someone focuses on making another better off or feel better, without any thought of reward (other than the satisfaction of making someone feel better.) Kind of the 1 Corinthians 13 version. E.g., in The Parchment, it’s not just Jade and Alex wanting a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, but them trying to make the other feel better. And love is what I would call what Natasha and Alex’s parents and Jade’s parents give Jade. In Images, Jenna and Taylor, though romantic with one another, both at different times devote themselves to trying to relieving the other’s suffering, or at least keeping them from being alone in it, as do Holly, Njinda, Angie, and others. And Jenna taking Ingrid in and caring for her, despite what Ingrid did (and how unlikable she is), is IMHO love. But it is everywhere. (Cf. “look for the helpers.”)
So much of the time I feel like the world consists of people and events trying to make people miserable. (I admit, I’m inclined to see things that way, since that’s how my world seemed when I was growing up.) Reading the news, or surfing blogs, of course really reinforces that impression. So any time I’m with people or read about people who are unselfishly trying to make things better for people, it’s like a hot water bottle and hot herb tea when I’m feeling sick. Even when I’m not actually sick.
Comments
What a lovely tribute!
As he, I can’t imagine a nicer tribute to a truly wonderful author.
I hope you are feeling better!
— Emma
Bailey Is a Treasure
And so are you.
We live in a transactional world. So many decisions are based on WIIFM!
I agree with your definition of love, which has decisions based on What's In It For The Other Person.
In business, many people walk away from deals that are clearly good for them because they sense the deal is better for the other party. Strange!
Ray Kroc, who created McDonald's had a business philosophy of making sure his vendors did well so he could continue to do well in his business. His suppliers all became quite wealthy. There's something to be learned from that.
kroc also stole the wife of one of his best friends and business associate. His largest franchisee. There's something to be learned from that as well!
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Thank you for this reminder
Bailey is a gem!
Love, Andrea Lena
Yep. Bailey's on my list of "who to read if I need a pick-me-up"
And so are a lot of other authors.
I won't enumerate, for fear of leaving someone out ... and your list will be different. But they are on my go-to list for when I need some cheering up, or some 'patching up'.
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If we 'look again' at a lot of stories here, they are Romances. And a lot of stories are Wish Fulfilment, and just plain good stories, and the hero/ines come out on top,
Out in cis-het land, the Romance plot line is:
boy meets girl, they 'dance around a lot, and/or there is Big Obstacle in the way (boy loses girl, or there's a rival, or Social Class issues, or family/ies, or ...), and they take care of same, then "let the wedding bells peal". [1]
In here, the Big Obstacle, is of course, almost always TG-related. Then add in sexual preferences, and maybe some other Big Obstacle ... a long story gets them to the wedding bells, or to where they want to be.
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One of Covey's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effecti... Habits is Win-Win.
I think Covey adds something like "If we can't both come out winning, then 'no deal'.) Sure, in business, maybe one party can 'squeeze every last dime' out of the other party. But the 2nd will 'go away mad' and not want to 'play' again; they'll find somebody else to play (do business) with.
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[1] Edgar Rice Burrows' John Carter of Mars novel series fits a Romance structure. "Carter goes to Mars, meets girl. Carter loses girl. Carter wipes out 1/2 of Mars. Carter gets girl".
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After ~twelve trips by John Carter, our Rovers report that Mars is a dead planet ...
Bailey is one of my absolute favorite authors……
And someone who I like to think of not only as a friend, but someone who is very special to me.
At a very difficult juncture in my life, a time during which I was faced not only with the potential of losing my family and everything that meant anything to me, but also a time during which I was so depressed that thoughts of suicide were not just running through my head - but were dominating my waking mind, Bailey was my anchor. Bailey kept me sane with timely and caring comments, and when answers to my questions were not available, Bailey helped me to think through my problems by providing insight and advice.
We’re it not for Bailey, as well as a few others here on this site, I would not be here to write this missive today. Nor would I be the person that I have become; a much better person than I believed I could ever be, but apparently others saw buried within me.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to stay in touch with Bailey as I wished. Bailey has dropped off this site for the most part; I do see an occasional posting on social media - but even those have become few and far between. I know that there was considerable upheaval in Bailey’s personal life, and as much as I would have wanted to help, I was not able to due to time and distance.
Somewhere out there I hope that Bailey is doing well, and I hope that some day I may be able to repay the debt that I owe.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus