I understand how you feel. I do think lurve gives some validation that your efforts are at least appreciated by others. Sometimes the lurve even tells you that you’ve said something other people actually find useful.
For a person like me, it means a lot. I’ve never had good feedback from people like my parents, and I never knew how I compared to others, so I always believed I was no good.
Oddly, there are plenty of people here who are willing to tell me I’m stupid and no good, and of course, what they say fits in perfectly with how I see myself in my heart of hearts. So that’s good, because it confirms my essential rottenness.
However, I also get good feedback and sometimes people write me these amazing pms thanking me for what I’ve said. I know that has to be real. There’s no reason why someone would write something like that just for fun.They must mean it. Which means my true beliefs about myself may not be true. Maybe I’m not hopeless and worthless as I am convinced I am.
So lurve, in combination with other feedback, confirms both views of me. The wonderful and the horrible. Somehow it all balances out. I mean, where the fuck else could I write such a schizophrenic answer and people will appreciate it. Assuming they do. Which they might not. But even if they don’t, I still had fun thinking about it.
So thanks. And GQ, too!