Here’s the latest installment in my on-going “Various Issues I’ve Been Thinking About” series.

Basically, why do people love complicating the idea of being in love? Specifically, why do people hold on so tightly to a few simple words, “I love you.” It seems stupid to me to be in a serious relationship, and for one or both people to psych themselves out over “whether or not we’re really in love,” or to make weird meaningless distinctions like “Well, I love him, but I’m not IN love with him.”

Or, if you’re one of the lucky few to actually be willing to admit to yourself that you’re in the throes of loving somebody, to have to sit around and wonder whether actually telling them that is going to somehow screw things up.

Another favorite of mine is when people say “I love being with you,” or better yet, “I love the way you make me feel…” What a slap in the face that extra layer of abstraction is.

Also, I think its a huge wild waste of time to sit around and look back on your life and past relationships, and stay up at night thinking, “Well, was I really even in love with them at all? Maybe I was just fooling myself. Maybe I’ve never really been in love at all…”

As far as I can tell, love gains nothing by being stingy with it. The whole point of love is that it’s there to be felt strongly, and given freely, and wildly, and irresonpsibly. You can’t sit around on it, hiding it, and nursing it in the darkness. What’s the damn point then? Why tiptoe around it? It’s like having a box of firecrackers in your closet and never using them. It’s just a waste.

I’m so tired of people wringing their hands, and shuffling their feet. Me, I want to fall in love constantly and recklessly, and announce it boldly wherever I go. And damn the fucking torpedoes!

Am I going to make “mistakes” with it, and get into all kinds of ridiculous trouble because that’s my foreign policy? OF COURSE! And that’s really the whole point, cause otherwise, how can we grow and change and move beyond ourselves into something wild and beautiful? Beats the shit outta me…

On that note, here’s a little something I painted maybe 4 or 5 years ago, when such things were very much on my mind.