Let me first preface this post by saying that the only reason I call this a debate is because I had Kyle tell me this is just a "female thing" and that there is no difference between the two phrases. Obviously, I disagree. And to date, everyone I have asked seems to agree with me. So while I will be asking for completely honest opinions, you may find this to be a poorly disguised attempt to garner support for my position. Your assumption would be correct, but I ask you to please play along and humor me.
Ayn Rand is one of my favorite authors/philosophers. While some of her ideas seem bizarre, I have also found a lot of comfort and self-esteem in some of her [more realistic] ideas regarding the self. One such idea that Rand wrote about goes as follows: "To say 'I love you' one must first be able to say the 'I.'" This concept, I think, is similar to proverb/quote: "You must love yourself before you love another." I actually find this to be very true. I was always very cordial with myself before I met Kyle, but I do not think that I would have said that I loved myself. After two and a half years of dating Kyle, I have begun to get along with myself much more - I love myself and my life more than I ever did before. And I also find that the more I love myself, the more I love Kyle as well - even when he gives me responses such as the one in my first paragraph (in retrospect, his response gave me a good thing to blog about, so haha on you, Kyle). When it comes to loving another person, the "I" is very important. I mean, if a person were to omit the "I" in "I love you," it would leave the question: who loves you? The answer: I do! Unless of course, the answer is "They love you" in which case it might behoove one to specify who is doing the loving as to avoid confusion or opportunity for misinterpretation. Trust me. There are those of us out there who enjoy purposely misinterpreting things if the mood so strikes.
I had a high school creative writing teacher who said that love is a word with no love in it. Saying that I love potatoes has a different meaning than saying that I love Kyle, and yet I used the same word for both. Saying "Love you" has less meaning and emphasis than saying "I love you." I am more likely to say, "Love you" to friends in a somewhat off-handed fashion. "Oh by the way, love you, bye!" On the other hand, "I love you" denotes a higher degree of seriousness, and is therefore often more difficult to say.
Now it's your turn. Do you, my dear readers, think that there is a difference between saying "I love you" and "Love you" ?
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
