Managing Faith: The Dilution of "I Love You"

Last night I was watching the reunion episode of Top Chef, a competitive cooking reality show. All contestants had congregated in a studio to film the episode, and there was plenty of joking around and underhanded jabs at one another.

Following a slightly inflammatory comment from one of the contestants to another, the contestants said, "No, really, I love you" in a tone that actually said, "Let's move on."

After that, I happened to catch the tail end of American Idol, during which a contestant was particularly crestfallen after being eliminated. Paula Abdul reached out to her, grabbed her hand, and said, "You know we love you."

Call me old fashioned, but I consider the combination of those three words--"I love you"--to be the most powerful in the English language. In any language. Why are people throwing them around so easily?

I wouldn't mind someone saying those words if they meant them. If Paula truly loved that contestant, if the guy on Top Chef truly loved his competitor, by all means, say it. But it's painfully apparent that there's no love there. Sure, Paula feels for the contestant and maybe has enjoyed her stint on the show, but she doesn't love her. She likes her. "You know we like you," she should have said.

I'm probably being nitpicky, but it's just a big turnoff for me to hear those words thrown around. It dilutes their power; it dilutes their meaning. Do we really want the three most powerful words in our vocabulary to be diluted down to "Let's move on"?