I love my wife.
I love my son.
I love my daughter.

John Janevic , Ann Arbor, MI

 

"I know. It's too short. It's too conventional. But here's my rationale, and you can use any part of this that you want.

1. I believe that true love must have the potential of being reciprocal. Chocolate will never love you back hence it ain't love. Peace on earth, or the Sunday Times and a cappuccino will never love you back, either.

2. Those three people are the only people in my life for which I experience an entire range of emotions within the context of the love: tenderness, anger, exuberance, satisfaction, irritation, etc.

3. Those three people are the only people in my life who can produce a range of emotions (with physical side effects) in me in a totally imaginary situation. I can, and have, worked myself into a gut-wrenching, sweaty, heart racing, and teary state simply *imagining* something awful happening to my son. I can, and have, peacefully fell asleep in a matter of minutes simply *imagining* my daughter's playful dancing.

Hence, I simply can't extend "love" to anything and everyone else beyond those three -- there needs to be a different word. Kind of like the supposed "30 words for snow in the Eskimo/Inuit language" (though I think Cecil debunked this a while back).

And, since you were successful in making me think through this and commit it to writing -- thanks and I hope it served your purpose."

(JMS: Well said John.)

 

 

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