This blog entry’s going to be short.

 

It’s two days past Valentine’s Day, and a recent conversation with a dear friend I had put certain things into perspective about love and how we express it on different levels, and the limitations to it.

 

The English language, as expansive as it is, has borrowed from so many other languages that allow those speakers to express their true feelings in ways that move the spirit tremendously. Even on the level of casual affection. It might be why the word “love” as we know it, has perceived limitations. Emphasis on perceived. When you hear how love is expressed in other languages, sometimes with one or two words, the energy you feel from them is electric. 

 

Seriously. As someone who has written their fair share of poetry and researched writers and books from other countries, what’s out there is remarkable. I’m not writing this to knock English speakers, just as a nudge that we have all of these words at our disposal. We shouldn’t be limited in what we want to express to each other, and less reliant on canned phrases, or devolving to digital shorthand all the time. These days more than ever, we have to verbally express love and support for one another in clear and weighty terms. Not only in a romantic sense, but in the familial and peer sense too.

 

As my good sister, MC, and activist Mystic calls this “Additional Love Month”, I think this is something we should all work towards during this time and beyond. Walk good, good people.