It takes 1 small prick and a few drops of blood, and one can be tested negative or positive for HIV.

It takes 2 words for one to be joined to another in a civil union and to spend the rest of their lives together.

It takes 3 words for 2 people to start a relationship.

Yet most of the time, the focus is not so much about these small acts itself - it's the larger connotations behind them.

You cannot tell what sort of a lifestyle a person has, but him going for a HIV test gives insight.

You cannot be sure that the most quarrelsome couple you have ever known will survive being together, but them getting married suggests that they might work things out.

You cannot agree that the two people should be together, but them reaffirming each other connotes something more.

And so we come to the idea - that the thing itself is not so much the crux, but the overarching thoughts associated with that simple action or those simple words - sometimes we mean it, other times it's bringing out our point.