He watched the guy tenderly caress
the body and carefully remove the
black top, fold it neatly out of sight
and gaze lustfully at the naked frame
of his shiny, new four-wheel drive
convertible. The guy told everybody
that he just loved that vehicle and
the man assumed that the guy did.

He watched young people sitting out-
side of a frozen yogurt shop, sliding
their tongues around the various
flavors and toppings mounted on the
sugar cone catching melting yogurt
before it slid down the cone onto
their laps or ground. One girl, with
great gusto and utter sincerity,
declared she just loved salty cara-
mel more than anything else in the
world and the man assumed that she
did.

The man sat at his son’s graduation
ceremony listening to the speaker’s
commencement address. She spoke
of love and used words like “affect-
ion, respect, recognition, commit-
ment, trust and care.” The man look-
ed around at the soon to be college
graduates and saw them gazing lov-
ingly into their communication de-
vices oblivious to the live comments
of the speaker. The man looked back
up to the platform and saw faculty
in their academic robes and doctoral
hoods staring down trying to hide
their communication devices. The
man knew that if asked to describe
how they felt about those devices,
they would say that they just
loved them. The man assumed
that they all did.