What is the secret of true love? What is the meaning of life? We're Scotte and Toni Burns, storytellers from the Black Hills of South Dakota, and we love the easy questions!
So, several years ago, we began motorcycle touring America, revealing love in American culture and the country’s great love stories from small towns, mountain and coastal communities, to reservations, college campuses and truck stops. From big city streets to prisons, farms, suburbs, and US military bases, Love in America dives deep into love in American history, society and culture, asking Americans of every color, faith and age about the meaning of love in this American life. Our tales from the heart of America reveal that the greatest love stories aren’t just romantic love, they’re also tales of perseverance, lifelong devotion, inspiration, and of the American story itself.
Story is the key to understanding what is love, because throughout human history, the way humans have shared meaning, purpose, culture, even morals, has been through our stories. As one Native American storyteller shared with Love in America, we gain knowledge by being told what something means - but through story, we find our own meanings, and in that way, we truly discover the wisdom we seek.
And through story, we come full circle to those first two questions: What is the secret of true love and what is the meaning of life? There’s a simple answer to both...You get to choose that.
Stories about the choices others have made, the many paths their loves have taken, and especially the laughter they’ve shared, are the places we begin that quest.