Nothing Means Anything Anymore

It's springtime and love is in the air--too much love if you ask me.

I think people say "I love you" way too much. I think I tell my kids that I love them way too often. (Bet you never heard someone say that before.)

Back in the day, parents were a lot more stingy with the "L" word and I think the pendulum has swung waaaay over to the opposite side. I am seriously beginning to wonder if there is so much love talk being tossed around that we have de-valued what was once a strong currency.

It seems to me that kids were better citizens, more polite, and more respectful when there was at least a smidgen of a doubt whether they were loved.

Maybe that's not it. Actually, I don't think I ever had a doubt that I was loved, but it's not because I heard it all the time; I knew for some other reason. I knew even though I rarely heard it, though my parents rarely bought me anything, though I was yelled at constantly for minor missteps, though I was spanked often.

These days people don't spank, don't yell, and don't hold back on the gifts. Somehow it doesn't seem like this works as well as the old way.

But it isn't just parents and their children: teens are expressing their love for one another before they have any idea what love really means. It seems like everybody loves everybody.

People didn't toss the four-letter word around so lightly when I was coming up. It meant something to tell someone you loved them. My son is constantly telling girls that he loves them and they tell him the same.

What is he going to tell the one he really loves? Do we have a new word that I haven't been told about?