My amazing boyfriend of going on three years, who I know is plotting a proposal, lights up when I wake up in the mornings, because now we can hang out. He tells me at least once a day how much he loves me and how much joy I bring him, he thinks that nearly everything I do is adorable and delights in it, he does things for me just because he knows I'll appreciate them having been done. It was weird at first! As someone who had been into ~ flinchy dudes in the past, and as someone who had never been loved or IN love before and to whom exuberant affection and affirmation did not come naturally, there was a nonzero amount of self-reflection and choice involved in taking him seriously and letting it fuel my own delight and confidence and love for him rather than Getting Weird About It. And the skeptical version of me isn't wrong, it IS delusion-- I am a perfectly loveable person, sure, but I am obviously not the goddess he worships me as. He is a wonderful man, but I probably do not need to be tearing up in the middle of the workday because I randomly thought about how much I love him. But who cares? Happy, healthy love is building a religion together. All religions are a lot of nonsense, but they are also very, very real. Like Polly says, it's about belief. We all deserve to love true believers, and to become ones ourselves.
