The only thing there’s just too little of

One of my favorite things in the world is telling people that I love them.

Whether it’s a friend, relative, coworker, my wife, or a complete stranger; and whether it’s in person, over the phone or via text or email, few acts make me feel more human and alive that expressing love, from my mouth to another person’s ears, every single day.

Because if you think about it, that famous three word phrase, I love you, is perhaps the most versatile sentence in modern language.

It’s a way of expressing love, of course, but it’s also a way of proving appreciation, offering support, getting help, giving thanks, showing respect, offer concern, satisfying longing, expressing affection, experiencing joy, saying goodbye, and making amends, to name a few.

Linguistic researchers who study the use of this phrase cite something called speech act theory, which is a language philosophy that attempts to explain how words can be used not only to present information, but also to perform various tasks.

I love you, in this case, apart from its direct function to make a statement, is also a performative utterance. Love is this intentional decision to remain with the other person.

What’s fascinating to me is the historical debate around this frequency of using this phrase.

Can you tell people you love them too much? How many times a day is enough? Can this three word speech act become overused, cheapened, and abused by throwing it out too easily, freely, and frequently?

Maybe. Extremes in anything usually accomplish nothing.

But if there was something to overuse, this would be it. To quote my favorite modern poet, the reward for loving is being the carrier of love.

It all depends if your attitude is one of scarcity and contraction, or prosperity and openness.

Because in my experience, love is one of the few renewable resources in this world. When used in abundance, it does not lose its meaning and intrinsic value and become cliché.

Quite the opposite. If person one says I love you to person two, that doesn’t mean person three automatically gets the short end of the love stick.

Despite the high number of people in this world who believe that love is a zero sum game, the truth is, the more of it we use, the more we have.

Bacharach sang it best:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of, what the world needs now is love, sweet love, no not just for some but for everyone.

Look, if you’re not feeling as alive as you’d like to right now, try increase your frequency of this holy speech act.

See how many different ways you can say and use the phrase, I love you.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Who in your life really needs to hear you say that you love them?