Today, I sent a “I love you” sms to some of my closest friends and my family. The reaction did not surprise me. A few of them have called back and they all assumed it was a misfire. That I wanted to express my love to someone else (a damsel?) and erroneously sent an sms to them. They were all disappointed when I told them there has been no error!
I also recollect when some years ago (for the first time) I called my mom and told her “I love you”. She spent the next 10 minutes worrying what was wrong with me and whether I had landed into some trouble. Things have changed since then. My family is more tuned to my impromptu expressions of love.
Isn’t it tragic that we have forgotten to express our love to people we love – friends and family? We go about our lives as if love needs no expression and nothing can be further from the truth. The expression need not always be verbose or grand gestures. Peaceful silence, a caress, a smile, are all expressions of love.
How have we arrived at this juncture? What makes it so difficult to say “I love you”?
How about you calling someone and saying “I love you”?
—- Followup thoughts —-
A few friends came back wondering what I meant by the message. Really, how complex is a “I love you”?
Another friend called and said “I have some bad news for you. I think your cellphone has been infected by a virus. I got this message from you … .”I had to cut him short before he wasted another second worrying for me 🙂
Is it that we are now seasoned to believe anything but that it is quite normal to say “I love you” to people you love?
Guldasta 
I’m blessed enough to be part of a family that gets a prompt “I love you too” on even the simplest sweet gesture. So I guess I’d also suggest your readers to ask themselves how quick they are to reply to an expression of love, whether it be a verbal or nonverbal gesture. 🙂
arienaied,
Isn’t that nice! I must say you are lucky.
My brother replied (a bit late though) with a “I too love you” 🙂
Our speed to anger and hatred is matched by our slowness to love. Direct expressions of love have been limited to one’s spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend.
Infact we (and that includes me) feel embarrased, hesitant and sometimes even terrified of expressing our love. What a loss, ‘cos the world would surely be a better place if we got all that love out of our hearts.
Love,
Gurdas
It’s a brilliant observation, I also have a daughter and wife who keeps saying I love you very frequently and trust me; the joy of communicating what we feel is fantastic. I almost end most of my blogs with lots of love and my readers initially felt uncomfortable but they have used to it by now.
Its also fun to be less explicit… sometimes I tell my wife “Its been a year since we’ve been married so far and I think I can more or less manage to put up with you for some more time” and she says “oh wow thanks” and we both burst into laughter! Other times its like “you’re actually a nice person” and sometimes am more direct “I can live without you, but its been much better having you around and I really love you!” My mom isn’t so receptive, she’s more like “hey what are you up to” like you’ve described above but I think I’ll take your cue and be a bit more persistent… 🙂 My sister always reciprocates!
Sanjay,
Agreed! Subtle signals make for great fun. I wonder if that is reserved for one’s spouse? Do we have subtle expressions for other people in our lives? I am single and cannot qualify that question….
Sister’s are such amazing creatures! That sms experiment started with my calling my sis on Raksha Bandhan to say I love her. She reciprocated in the way only a sister can.