The L BOMB!

When is it too soon to tell someone that you L.O.V.E. them?

How do you know when you actually love someone?

I think that most people, dare I say, especially men, feel like there is some sort of timeline that must be followed when deciding that you love someone and venturing further to actually dropping the "L BOMB" on them. BUT WHY??? I have never understood this...but it seems to be a commonly accepted practice that folks wait a year or six months to tell someone that they "L BOMB" them, even when the bomb begins burning within their heart at two months and is ready to explode at three. Or how about this one, no one wants to be the FIRST one to say the L word. Are people still being this junior high school about their feelings? I guess I can understand the fear of unrequited love or rejection...but still dang....

To me, love is an action word and is best expressed as such, but what if your actions don't speak loudly enough? Can I just go, "you know what peeps, I love you" without breaking some sort of rule (of course I am referring to dating here)? And even within the contex of committed relationships, why do folks reserve the use of the L Word? Some claim it takes the "pizzazz" out of it (the L Bomb) when overly used, so instead they hord it and dangle it over their partners head like some kind of reward for good behavior, a treat for special occasions or for comfort in times of distress...I know that folks would argue that it's some people's "personality" or some are less "emotional" than others, blah, blah bliggity, blah........

When you are just dating, maybe have not even made it "official" yet or things never progress to the "we got titles" stage but you wake up one day and realize, "dang, I LOVES me some such and such, with his/her fine self"...what the heck do you do?

Also, if you were in a relationship with one person and then moved on with someone new a short time after yall's split, is it impossible to honestly love the new peeps? Does he/she have to be a rebound person rather than the real deal? I just need a little help on this one...

My question is three (okay four) fold:

Is it ever too soon to tell someone that you love them?
What if you are not actaully in a relationship with them?
How do you really know that you love them?
What is the best way to go about expressing your feelings?

This is a "special" question:

What if you love someone and are cool with the fact that you will probably never be in a relationship with them, but you still love them and want to see them happy, healthy, succsesful etc...desire to do things to make them feel special, not in hopes of getting anything in return, but just because you really just love thier tail and you know that you don't just love them as a friend, even though yall are just friends and that's totally cool but you still love them a little more than just as a friend?

LOL!!

PGem