I love you
They're all saying it these days --
in schools and colleges,
in parks and restaurants,
at workplaces and in bedrooms,
over the phone and through the e-mail.
They first say it as a declaration,
then as an assurance.
Even people who normally don't converse in English,
when it comes to expressing this primary emotion,
prefer 'I love you' to its vernacular equivalent.
Just as the way it happens in the movies:
the hero or the heroine will flirt in the regional language,
but the flirtation usually culminates
with the mouthing of the inevitable
'I love you.'
But when people say
'I love you' to each other,
what exactly do they mean?
That they want to get married?
That they find each other irresistible?
Or is it an expression of affection or admiration?
Or an unstated agreement to have sex?
No one knows.
The answer is bound to be as
complicated as the definition of love.
