I can say with 77% certainty that “I love your faces” was a sign off phrase put into circulation by the group that introduced me to VEDA some years ago, some of whom now constitute the I Feel Better podcast. I’m more certain that the phrase stuck around our community because of how effective it was to pair colloquial and symbolic meanings. “Your face” is a language intensifier used in place of the second person object pronoun (e.g. “I love your face [you]!”) and a rejoinder (e.g. “Yeah, well, your face loves your face.”). Most are familiar with the latter instance, and while I personally don’t see the point in it other than serving as an occasional pun, the former instance is definitely in heavy rotation during VEDA. Your face, as it appears on the screen in a YouTube video, speaking at a lens, addresses the world on the other side of the camera. You are connecting to this world not through the more internet-common parlance of text and images, but with words that come out of your mouth, carried by your voice. With intention that comes out of your body language. With meaning that comes out of your eyes. Compared to addressing the internet with text, the experience can be described as intensified. Being part of a community that has implicitly agreed to communicate with each other in this way can be a profound experience. “Your face” is a language intensifier. Also, your face is a language intensifier. I can say with 98.6% certainty that I love you for it. -nicopolitan
