I like you.

Our culture doesn't have a word or concept for "whatever relationship meets both of our needs and desires". We have a dozen different labels for specific types of relationships, but where those terms overlap or don't apply we really have nothing suitable. This problem plagues me on a regular basis, so I'm going to write this all out in a fashion that I can link to people in the future. It might seem impersonal, and it is a little, but I'll accept that to avoid potentially hazardous miscommunication and hopefully lead to figuring these things out more easily or sooner.

If I've linked you directly to this post, I probably like you. How I like you is something we should discuss, but there's an exceptionally good chance that my desires aimed at you are a superset of yours for me, and in that light I'd like to open a dialogue with you. I'd like to know how you feel about me. What furthering of our relationship would be comfortable to you, and what might I do to accommodate that? I assign enough value to keeping our acquaintance or friendship stable that I would give up the possibility of having more with you to avoid risk of alienating you out of my own ignorance.

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