The Meaning of Love

Back in my day, my friends would use the words "cool" or "sweet".  My kids, especially Sam, use the words "B.A." as well as "sweet".  One of the more recent terms that have been a little harder to get used is "Love". 

At my previous position, the average age was 38-40 so the vernacular was similar to my own.  In my current job, the average age probably runs 18-21.  One of the terms this younger crowd uses is "love" in the same way my generation would say "kiddo" or "honey".  "Thanks Love" was one of the first phrases pointed in my direction by one of the employees I had just finished helping.  The first time I heard it I wondered if my ears deceived me...how strange.

I've now become accustomed to hearing this term of endearment all the time.  I've also heard on numerous occasions at work "love you"; "love you lots"; and even "I love you Leash."  Seriously, these phrases were previously only uttered to me by my family or very, very close friends.  I now hear it on a daily basis while at work and even on Facebook, uttered to me by co-workers or even simply acquaintances.  Why is the word love so easily given by this generation?   And how should I respond?  With a superficial "love you too"?  In most cases I simply chuckle, say thanks, or utter "love ya man!" with a smile in my voice.

While my mother was very generous with her exclamations of love and affection, I can probably count on only two hands the number of times my father has told me he loved me.  I freely tell my siblings I love them and I probably tell my sons I love them five times a day....before school, after each phone call, and before bed.  My close friends know I love them but it's rare I say it out loud to them.  I also only state "I love you" in a relationship if I truly feel it from the heart.

I ran across a definition of love from the Urban Dictionary of all places.  I've bolded the sections that truly speak to me when I think of the emotion of love.

Love is an incredibly powerful word. When you're in love, you always want to be together, and when you're not, you're thinking about being together because you need that person and without them your life is incomplete.  This love is unconditional affection with no limits or conditions: completely loving someone. It's when you trust the other with your life and when you would do anything for each other. When you love someone you want nothing more than for them to be truly happy no matter what it takes because that's how much you care about them. You hide nothing of yourself and can tell the other anything because you know they accept you just the way you are and vice verse.

It's when they're the last thing you think about before you go to sleep and when they're the first thing you think of when you wake up, the feeling that warms your heart and leaves you overcome by a feeling of serenity. Love involves wanting to show your affection and/or devotion to each other. It's the smile on your face you get when you're thinking about them and miss them.

With that definition in mind, does professing love to those you barely know devalue its meaning?  Will a constant use of the word love reduce it's relevance?  Or will the continued use of the word to everyone under the sun create a world of tolerance and inclusion?  Perhaps, borrowing from Sophocles, an ancient Greek playwright, "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love."

If a single word in our vocabulary can free us from the weight and pain of life, then who am I to judge?  I will continue to accept it as it's given and continue to speak it when it comes from my heart.