Love is...?
When I was ten I noticed no one in my family ever used the words: “I love you.” And this carried out into my extended family. No “I love you’s,” to anyone. It was almost as if the word “love” really was a four letter word—a shameful word. An embarrassing word. Well, they didn’t think this way in black and white 1940's and 1950's Hollywood. Glamorous people, clouds of cigarette smoke hovering around them in a gauzy nimbus, forever leaned toward one another, and, in husky, emotionally-charged voices, emitted those wondrous words. I. Love. You. So I grew up believing people only said I love you in the movies. Never in real life. Three days ago a man said those words to me. Well, honestly, with Facebook lots of men say those words to me. But they are meaningless. Those men don’t know me. I feel they are abusing those three sacred words. Cheapening them. But I’d known this man for a while. We msg’ed and video chatted daily. He was beginning to k