'LoveNotes!' — Where cardiac arrest meets heart-fluttering romance 💖

NARCAN included

Stand-up comedian, actor, and writer Kristina Kelley had been dating her now-partner for about a week when the couple decided to kick it up a notch with some recreational party drugs. What was meant to be a playful, if not slightly debaucherous, night out turned into fentanyl poisoning, a panicked call for NARCAN, and the beginning of a long-lasting relationship. Not my vision of the ideal second date, but love is love.

Kelley was among 15 storytellers who recently gathered in New York City to share their LoveNotes!, an evening of crafted narratives created and produced by Heather Christie. While the exclamation point befits Christie’s maximalist personality (the intimate theater at Symphony Space decorated with swaths of Valentine-red fabric, the podium befitting Cupid’s celebration of life service, and the host decked out in plentiful rhinestones), the accounts she’s expertly curated tell a more nuanced story.

A widow and widower meet at a random cafe in Mexico. A man wakes up from surgery to find his husband, boyfriend, and parents at his bedside. A trip to Paris ends with a break-up. It’s the stuff rom-coms and weepy romances are made of.

Harvard Medical School (and plenty of other studies) suggest that love is physiological. Associate professor of psychiatry Dr. Richard Schwartz states, "There’s good reason to suspect that romantic love is kept alive by something basic to our biological nature.” But what fun is that?

Christie has turned LoveNotes! into a movement, publishing the inaugural collection as an interactive book this past November. Her podcast will launch later in 2025, and satellite productions are already popping up. Does love conquer all? In these trying times, let’s hope so.

@everybodylovesluey Photo by Matthew Wexler

IMC takeaway: While my human love life has been a few brief and redacted chapters, love for my dog Luey is as sweeping as a Danielle Steel novel, from left-for-dead on the streets of San Antonio to a life of canine luxury in bustling New York City. Follow him on Instagram if puppy love is more your style.