Sam Radford

April 27, 2022

Love people, like things

I don’t think this blog post will lead to a global revolution whereby people reevaluate how they use the word ‘love’. But I would like it to!

I read something the other week—and, sadly, I can’t recall where—that pointed out the dangers of loving ‘things’.

I might say, I love Leicester Tigers. Or my iPhone. Or my job. Or pizza. (Okay, maybe ‘love’ is allowed for pizza! 😉😂)

But is that an appropriate use of the word love?

When we use that same word in relation to people, do we end up diminishing its meaning?

Yes!

If we love everything, do we really love anything?

Words matter. If we are trivial in our use of a word like ‘love’ we steal from it the power to mean something.

Do I want my daughter to think I think about her the same way I do my iPhone?!

Yet that’s the danger.

Sometimes we add value to words by using them less.

I think we’d all benefit for using the word ‘love’ less and only using it in relation to people.

‘Like’ is a perfectly adequate descriptor for the inanimate things in our lives.

—Sam

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👉 @samradford | samradford.com

About Sam Radford

Husband, father, lover of books, writer, tech geek, sports fan, and pragmatic idealist from Sheffield, England.