Li'l lesson from Mr.Mayer

"When you first meet somebody, you find out they like you first of all. A friend of a friend of theirs says he/she really really likes you and it floors you, kills you, sends you to the ground. You gotta pick yourself up off the ground and then you get their phone number and you call them up right and you say, "Yeah that was a great conversation, can I see you sometime?" And then they say this, they say, "I'd like that" And "I'd like that" makes you fall on the floor again. Your heart is about to stop because of "I'd like that". Nothing feels better than "I'd like that". So now,your blood pressure's goin'. You're six feet off the ground. You can't sleep because of "I'd like that". So then you hang out for a while and you call and you talk on the phone all the time and then you drop the bomb or what feels like the bomb.You say, "You know what? I've been thinkin about you a lot". And she goes "Haaaaugh!" And you go "What happened?" and she goes "I'm sorry. I just. I just. I just. That's...I've been thinking about you too". BAM! Higher into the sky. But now, "I'd like that"? Done! Now you're up to "I'm thinking about you".

Then, however number of months pass, it makes you feel comfortable saying it, you say "I gotta tell you something". They go "What?". You go, "I'm in love with you". And nothing in the world sounds better than "I'm in love with you". And then maybe she starts crying or maybe she goes "Huuuugh!" And then all of a sudden you're like, "I'm in". But now, what doesn't work? "I'd like that" and "I've been thinking about you". Now we're at "I'm in love with you". Then maybe someday we move up to "I love you". Fastforward, now you're like "I love you a lot. I love you more than anything in life". Now "I love you" doesn't work. It's a threshold. It keeps moving up.

Fastforward like six months, six weeks, whatever the case may be. Now you're on like, "I wanna marry you. I wanna impregnate you with my love. I wanna- I wanna just send my love to you. Damnit! Words don't work anymore!" And then you say this line and you know- you know you've used this line before. "I just wish they'd put a new word in the dictionary bigger than love, cos love just doesn't describe what I feel". And so then, now he or she starts asking "Do you love me?" And you start going, "Of course I love you". Well say it!" And then it becomes "Say it twice" and they go "Say it three times". And then, you cross a really interesting point, where all of a sudden it becomes "I hate you. I hate you". And you go "Oh my God, she hates me". And now it's "I hate you more than anything!" And then it's like "We're over!" And they're like "No, we're not!" And you go "Yes we are!"

And now the words completely do not work at all. You're left with nothing. You're throwing punches under water. You're done! You know what the moral lesson of this story is--if there is one?

Never ever, ever, ever underestimate the power of "I'd like that.""

[John. Taken from Any Given Thursday concert]