If you’ve been following my blog for a long time, you’d remember that I did a whole month’s worth of posts on ‘love’, and one of the topics was discussing the different kinds of love that exist. If you’re curious, you can read the post titled “Breaking Down ‘Love’.” right here before you can come back and read this post.
Yesterday, I tweeted something about saying ‘I love you’ to your friends more often, and I was thrown off by the people saying that telling your friends you love them is a ‘horrible joke’. And I just have one thing to say here, ‘I love you’ isn’t always romantic. There is nothing wrong with saying it platonically to your friends, especially because they are a huge part of your lives.
Say ‘I love you’ to your friends more often!!!❤️❤️❤️
— Shubhangi Srinivasan (@_The_Shubhster_) November 2, 2019
And what is ‘love’, really? What is the true essence of the word? Because in it’s stripped-down sense, ‘love’ just means heightened affection for somebody in your life, and nowhere has it been mentioned that the word ‘love’ can only be used for romantic purposes. We made that happen by overusing the word and reducing it to something that needs to be spelt out for people now.
I’ve noticed that there is a lot of outrage among people who get ‘friend-zoned‘ just because somebody told them that they are loved. but ‘like a friend’. Do you not hear how problematic this sounds? Nobody owes you romantic love. Nobody owes you anything. Not even if you’ve somehow developed feelings for them. Everybody is entitled to their free will and if they don’t reciprocate your feelings, you need to accept that and move on, instead of insulting and lashing out at them or forcing yourself on them. That’s the most inhuman thing you’ll ever do.
‘Philia’ is the kind of love that represents a deep friendship. The kind that you share with your closest friends and confidantes. On the other hand, we have ‘pragma’, which is long-lasting, romantic love. A lot of us don’t understand the difference between philia and pragma and end up confusing one for the other. Wouldn’t things be so much easier if we all agreed that like everything else in this world, love also comes in all shapes and sizes?
The world is becoming smaller with every passing day, but the people in our lives grow more distant. It’s so funny how technology was improved for people to get closer and not more distant, but it’s not an ideal world, is it? Because now, simply because we can, we avoid and ignore people, leave them hanging and sometimes, we even disappear without a trace, let alone an explanation. The road to Hell was truly paved with good intentions.
In such a brutal world, it’s important to remind the people who are closest to us that we do really love them, regardless of the dynamic we share with them. It’s not that hard to tell our closest friends that we love them, you know? I do it all the time and I honestly feel like I don’t say it enough. There’s not enough love in this world and there’ll always be room for more.
So why don’t we consciously make it a point to normalize saying ‘I love you’ platonically more often? Everybody could use some love right now.
Cheerio! Xx
Hey guys! I hope you liked the post. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think, and share this if you find it interesting. You can also contact me on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
The Shubhster.
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