I Love You Man

Most people would admit that they love their families, so it’s common for family members to express love for each other. No everyone is comfortable doing so in public but it does happen in private.

Many people would say they love their friends too… but somehow they don’t always express love as freely to friends. Why is that? Children have no problem expressing love to a friend, but adults…. not so easily.

Maybe it’s the social stigma. Nobody wants to be that drunk guy yelling, “I love you man!” to people he’s just met. Is that what we’re really afraid of?

Of course there are different types of love… romantic love, familial love, friendship love, love-peace-and-happiness and the love of pets, the ocean or chocolate. Maybe we are afraid of being misunderstood.

My hometown of Benicia is a very close knit community. I often describe it as incestuous, but I use that word in a good way. Everyone here knows each other, is related through friendships with far less than six degrees of separation. In Benicia, the average is 1.8 degrees.

I truly believe there’s lots of platonic love being shared in Benicia. I see it all the time but why do we still have a hard time saying it?

Maybe we just need a fun quirky way of saying “I love you” to make it safer and less likely to be taken the wrong way.

I’ve been saying “I love you long time”… for a long time. I do have to be careful around the Biscuit because he sometimes says it to me in front of others, and I know it may offend people. My friend Caroline says “I love you girl” which empowers me to own my feelings of love. My friend William says “I love you no sh-t” which always makes me smile because I know he means it.

In the end, life is short. You never know when you’re last day will be, or when you’re friend’s last day will be. Why not tell your friends you love them while you still can? I’ve recently been inspired to do just that… well, only if I really do. Even I don’t want to be the drunk I-love-you-man guy.

Disclaimer: If you are a friend of mine and I have not gotten around to you yet, please don’t assume the worst. I’ll be in touch.