What Is Love?

[Justme]

I'm not making any comparisons on the qualities of love. I'm only saying it's very hard to describe. Love has many shades, and one of those shades is very dark. Love someone too much and you can suffocate them. Love yourself too little and you're open yourself to being taken advantage of.

I'm not following you. Love, I think is not a hard thing to describe, though it is extremely hard to justify, at times. No one can feel the love you feel for another person. I can recall countless times that people have said, "I just don't see what he/she sees in him/her." But is that up to us to see what another sees in anything. I think not. I think that if you are infatuated with someone or a control freak you can suffocate them, but is that actually love or is that seeing a person as one thing and trying to make them. As far as loving yourself too little, that will just make you depressed which doesn't make you a doormat, just dangerous to yourself. I think you are talking about those who crave attention, which means more that you haven't been loved enough by others or at least you have that perception.

Again not comparing color to love. Lots of other things could make you do that too. Love can also drive you to kill, lie and cheat.

As I've stated before. Love is one of the most powerful of emotions and is more than once confused with something it is not.

Greed is the love of stuff. Envy is the love of what someone else has.

Sorry, I'm not trying to rain on your parade, far from it. But I think love is complex, and like I said in my first post, very hard to describe. It has many shades, not all of them light. And I think only to look at the lighter shades of love is to turn your back on a significant portion of love as a whole.

Greed is the desire to hoard wealth. It is not a love because you can never possess that which you love. When you love something, you cherish it as who that person is. A possession is a thing owned, not cherished. Love brings a feeling of good that needs to be shared. People who gather wealth are not necessarily happy and the sharing is not even in their vocabulary.

Envy is the desire for something that another has. I don't think it is love, for the same reasons i think greed is not. Basically, with these two emotions we are talking about objects instead of people. Personally, I think the more people use the word, the more they delude it's power and majesty.

You are not raining on anyone's parade. I don't know where you are getting that from. I've never thought a honest reply could be anything more than what it is, an honest reply. I am learning your mind and you are learning mine. This is why I posted this in the first place and I thank you for your responses. This is no different than reading a story by you of your feelings of what love is. The only thing is it is interactive and that can only happen in a place, such as this. I don't think I am turning my back on anything, though I am trying to untangle it's meaning from the quagmire that others have ensnared it in, by overusing it in many occasions.

 

[Steerpike]

I'll give this thread some thought and make a longer post. I've always liked this little piece by Dickinson:

Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.

Given Dickinson, it is easy to see the religious symbolism, but I think it can be interpreted without that as well.

For my own part, perhaps a most succinct definition of love is the elevation of the other above the self.

 

[Penpilot]

You are not raining on anyone's parade. I don't know where you are getting that from.

I said that to make it clear, or at least trying at least, that it's not my intention to say I am right and you are wrong. In philosophical matters like this everyone is right and wrong. It's a matter of what angle you choose to look at it from. Right now, each of us has a different definition of what love is, and I'm sure some else will jump in with theirs. This may seem like I'm jumping on the fence about this, but it's part of the reason why I think it's hard to describe love. If it was simple then it'd be easy to come up with a consensus definition. And I'm keeping science away with a ten-foot pole. I know what science says, and I don't think it's in the spirit of this thread.

Stepping around and looking over your shoulder, I see where you're coming from. I understand and I respect it. Seeing other angles and viewpoints is IMHO one of the most valuable things one can do as a writer. It doesn't mean you have to agree. As long as you're open to taking a different look, that's all any reasonable person can do.

 

[Devor]

Love is saying:

The only thing I genuinely want is for you to be truly happy, and maybe I could be a part of that?

 

[Justme]

Love is saying:

The only thing I genuinely want is for you to be truly happy, and maybe I could be a part of that?

That is the most profound statement I've heard today. Thank you.

 

[Justme]

I'll give this thread some thought and make a longer post. I've always liked this little piece by Dickinson:



Given Dickinson, it is easy to see the religious symbolism, but I think it can be interpreted without that as well.

For my own part, perhaps a most succinct definition of love is the elevation of the other above the self.

I once had faith in the divine, but now I have faith in human nature. There is very few that can put words to emotions but poets are the one's that come closest to the mark.

 

[Justme]

I said that to make it clear, or at least trying at least, that it's not my intention to say I am right and you are wrong. In philosophical matters like this everyone is right and wrong. It's a matter of what angle you choose to look at it from. Right now, each of us has a different definition of what love is, and I'm sure some else will jump in with theirs. This may seem like I'm jumping on the fence about this, but it's part of the reason why I think it's hard to describe love. If it was simple then it'd be easy to come up with a consensus definition. And I'm keeping science away with a ten-foot pole. I know what science says, and I don't think it's in the spirit of this thread.

Stepping around and looking over your shoulder, I see where you're coming from. I understand and I respect it. Seeing other angles and viewpoints is IMHO one of the most valuable things one can do as a writer. It doesn't mean you have to agree. As long as you're open to taking a different look, that's all any reasonable person can do.

My friend I understand you. I was just saying that I don't take differences of opinion personally. I'm as far from being omniscient as humanly possible. People fascinate me and the thoughts and opinions of others only illuminate me further. Just as long as it is given with honor and with respect to the listener. This is what impressed me about this site and the people within. There is a positive influence here that I've not seen in any other website.