"Italy"

"I love you. I love you. I love you."

Three words and eight letters that hold so much meaning and emotion.

Italy is a short, bittersweet story about a couple during the best and worst parts of their marriage. The story starts with the wife questioning her husband "Why don't you tell me you love me more?" he counters the question by asking whether she means: Why doesn't he love her more? or Why he doesn't say I love you more? Later after suffering two miscarriages, the couple has an lovely vacation in Italy that makes them forget about any of their troubles. Once they return home and back to reality they learn the wife has ovarian cancer. She goes through with a trial treatment which she later fails but, despite the obvious pain it causes her, she continues to go through with the treatment to potentially help others with ovarian cancer.

One thing that stood out to me in the story was the husband's demeanor and the way he thinks. He's a man of logic, he thinks analytically and in numbers. He's thinks more like Spock than Kirk, which I find fascinating, but means that emotions don't come easy. It's quite common for men to have troubles expressing their emotions because it is seen as unmasculine and saying I love you opens yourself up to a bigger commitment one that you might not want. However, I don't think it's just a man thing I think it's just rare in women. I myself have trouble expressing my emotions. In fact when a emotional conversation is going on and I need to state my "feelings" the one thing I want to do most is run away from the conversation. Note: The feelings in quotation marks is me "expressing" my abject disgust at the word I can't even type the word without internally cringing. The husband may have trouble saying I love you, because he still feels the way he did when he first said I love you to his wife and doesn't think it's logical to repeat it if his feelings haven't changed. This reluctance to show emotion could also be due to a troubled background where affection wasn't dolled out easily. Trouble communicating emotion doesn't equal a lack of emotion. People who can't freely state their emotions without a care, often do better in showing them, whether through body language or through material things. Sometimes it's just easier to show I love you rather than say those three words.

A stand out point in this story is the courage and immense humanity the wife had to go through those trials and all that pain to help other people. It was something I don't know if I would do in my last moments on earth. I think if it was me I would have been selfish and done whatever I could to make the most of my last days so I wouldn't die with any regrets. Even though this story has a sad ending it shows the audience reading it that the husband deeply regretted not having enough courage or enough time to tell his wife how much he truly and genuinely he loved her. And this story is like an apology to his dead wife and I'm sure the wife knew that he loved her but I also think she would have liked to hear it as well.

"We are only given today and never promised tomorrow.So make sure you tell the people who are special in your life that you love them" - Unknown

Italy by Antonio Elefano

RIP Leonard Nimoy