Is there such a thing as too much of anything good? Who can possibly have too much of a good thing?
It’s a subject that crops up every now and then with me and my friend. Every time she gets off the phone with her husband, she says “I love you.” Well, actually it’s kind of morphed into “la ya.” Which, come on, that’s not even saying it right. Which kind of kicks off my point of over-using the sentiment. It’s become more of a routine than a meaning, at that point. She claims her husband started it 10 years ago when he felt like it might be the last thing she hears from him and he wanted her to know it. Okay, I know. You love me. I hear it twenty flippin’ times a day when we get off the phone. (well, not me, but I’m imagining being her.) But, because he says it, she feels remiss if she doesn’t say it back.
Sitting across from her and hearing it, myself, said on her behalf, twenty times a day, well, it begins to lose its affect. Never saying it is another subject entirely, but too much of it IS a bad thing. It’s like being handed a chocolate chip cookie every time the phone rings. It becomes a Pavlov experiment. Does she even know what she’s saying anymore after repeating it a million times? Does she even feel the tender sentiment when he says it?
I will occasionally tell my “boyfriend” that I like him. My friend laughs. Like? Yes, sometimes liking someone is more important than loving them. Liking means I enjoy them, I look forward to their company. I Like him. I can and do love everyone in the world. It’s what I was taught. But, liking them is different subject.
On the occasion that I tell him I love him, it’s out of the blue. Felt and appreciated. At least I hope it is. And the same goes for me. I don’t have to be shouted it every time before a calls drops to know it. I feel it in just the reason why he’s calling. But, when he says it every now and then for no reason; that’s when I smile. Because I know at that moment, his heart is feeling it the most.
So, yes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Even chocolate chip cookies. Instead, there is a time and place, and a reason for that smile on my face.
