Valentine's Day has come and gone once again. I wrote a diary yesterday about my childhood experiences with it, but no one even saw the darned thing. Sad. (Here is the link to it in case you are at all curious.)
Anyway...
I realized that I had a few leftover thoughts about the notion of love, so I thought I'd throw another diary out into the void for nobody to read:
A friend of mine told me this:
“I believe the way we talk, the words we have, partially determines what concepts we have available, what tools we have for dealing with and clarifying reality around us and more importantly within us. There are some areas in English, however, that greatly need expanding. English is one of the most plastic of all languages, adopts and absorbs and modifies anything from anywhere, yet it’s so stilted in some crucial areas.”
I wonder if we ought to spend some time looking for new ways to deal with the concept of "love." (I’m liberally borrowing his thoughts throughout this diary, by the way.) So much confusion and misconception could be cleared up just by adding some words to expand it from its simple singular existence into something that more accurately reflects the myriad ways in which we employ the word. It goes far beyond the romantic connotations. Adding more words would add corresponding concepts into the national consciousness and clarity to the vagueness, and maybe a little revelation and self knowledge. It could save a lot of wasted lifetime nationally.
The ancient Greeks had, what, four words for different types of love? The Hopi Indians, I believe, have a dozen. We have one. A person can say I love my car, my mom, my house, my artwork, drag racing, milkshakes, my lover, my song, freedom,
my dog, flying, the smell of burning rubber, my country, my spirit, God, and (for crying out loud) sports teams, and that person doesn't mean the same thing at all by each 'love.’ And when we do speak of romantic love, we don't love each person the same way. It's not even about amount--they are just different: different frequencies and flavors, and sometimes not comparable.
I think that making assumptions from the vagueness of language causes a lot of problems and damage. People automatically assume the other person is talking about the same concept/emotion/experience they mean just because they're using the same word. I think English needs some tuning up clarifying words. Maybe we should add some.
Any thoughts or ideas?