Thursday 13 December 2007

Love- What is It?



We all blog on it a lot- what is it?

I wonder how far we all see it the same way...

Greater Love hath no man than he that lies down his life for his friends.
Is that love?

God is Love.
What does that mean?

Is love the look of a mother at her newborn baby?
Or the cry of joy at a Birmingham goal?

Is it the passionate embrace of a lover?
Or the joy of a dog at it's master coming home?

Is it a logical realisation of what makes the world better for everyone?
Or a fire in the heart, irrational, uncontrollable, as potentially destructive as it is constructive?

Is it sentiment that creates Peace?
Or the sentiment that causes Wars?

Helen of Troy- The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships...



Is it the ideal of a priest?
Or the ideal of a heroin addict?

Let's be clear what we mean by Love.

I think I know what it means to me. All other loves are truest, when they reflect that higher love. Otherwise they are just lifeless addictions.

Some people are that to eachother- just dangerous addictions. People think it's love, it's just an inability to shake an addiction.

So to me, true love should be an ideal.
But that doesn't make loving things for the sake of loving them bad in itself.

Love SHOULD be based in the head, some logic has to apply.
It shouldn't JUST be a passion.



And sex and love aren't the same thing, though there is a huge crossover. Love shouldn't be just based on sex, but that cuts the other way, sex shouldn't just be based on love. It confuses things, devalues love.

I think.

Hey, let me know your views.

I seem to be thinking a lot about this sort of stuff lately.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to comment but if I'm honest, I don't know what love is.

I know I've had it but it's hard to describe how that felt now it was such a long time ago.

Whatever it is, it's probably a very different experience for everyone.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is an interesting topic...
As for that last thing you said, about sex... well, the way I see it, sex takes a part of us, and makes us attached, so the reason to NOT have it with someone you don't love is that it might confuse both of you, and make you mistake it for love, which complicates matters.

Guess I'd agree with your first definitions; God is love, because love is unconditional and self-sacrificing; to go out of your way to sacrifice your life for someone you love, who may not necessarily return your love, or even know of your sacrifice (since many people reject the gospel, and many yet have never been told it). And if love doesn't have that element of sacrifice, of being willing to give all for the sake of the other, it hasn't reached the ideal of perfect love. But we're none of us perfect, so we can but try, and forgive others their lack of love...;-)

Anonymous said...

Love is.

The end.

Anonymous said...

Love and sex are not the same thing... what does it mean if I dream I'm in a brothel and the only service they provide is the ceremonial washing of feet?

That is what I dreamed last night!!

Anonymous said...

Sex is not love. Sex is something that we have linked to love by what we have put in place under the name morals.

Love, imo, is something where we feel a strong bond beyond friendship with someone and feel with them certain emotions and just want to protect them. Even to the extent of taking some of their pain from them and making personal sacrifices.
Some people appear to fall in and out of love really quickly but I don't call that love. It takes a while for someone in real love to change their view and that is the difference. Although I do believe you can just click with someone and fall for them fairly quickly. Then it builds into true love if it is reciprocated.

Everyone draws the line at a different place. Thats why some people are in love when they perform certain tasks and others are just in it for the nookie but doing the same tasks.

Anonymous said...

Love is a mystery. Why do we love one and not another? What is the chemical reaction of love?

Don't examine it too closely. Just enjoy it, whatever form it takes, hoping it will last.

Good post Crushed.

Anonymous said...

Love - the pressure in the underpants?

Anonymous said...

This could be an essay, in all honesty.
Love isn't just passion, it isn't just companionship- it's that, and more.
And I think it's a little different everytime.
What stands out for me this time is a sense of being knows and seen, inside and out.

Anonymous said...

Not much to add to this one. You are on a roll.

Love is a grand thing. But sometimes, so are those things that we mistake for love. Other's may see them as a base addiction or infatuation, but to the one beholden to it, there is nothing in the world like it.

That's what makes it great, and also what makes it sometimes deadly and tragic.

And yes, war itself is fought for the love of many things, right or wrong. Just look at my country's bold faced crusade to line our leader's pocket with what he loves the most.

Anonymous said...

I once heard that, "Love is a hard rock between two people and can't be torn apart." (as far as human love.)

Like the great plilosopher Howard Jones said,

"And maybe love is letting people be just what they want to be/The door always must be left unlocked/To love when circumstance may lead someone away from you/And not to spend the time just doubting..."

Anonymous said...

I agree with most of what you said. The word is used in so many ways it is difficult to define and the experience of love is beyond words so that doesnt help either. I found the two photographs almost a definition of love. They are like reflections of each other and somewhere in between those two types of beauty my heart would explode into love.

Anonymous said...

Love is? The sweetest thing? A many splendored thing? A dug? A battlefield? A wonderful colour? Alive? In the air? Here to stay? Like a butterfly?

But love is all around if we spent a bit more time looking for it.

Anonymous said...

I would say that I agree with you in some ways, that which is called Passion is not necessarily love, but it is a precursor to love, and a truly loving relationship (even when it experiences down times) will provide some of the same 'feelings' as passion.

But I agree with Phish, too, love is a state of being verb. I am. I walk. I run. I eat. I love.

Anonymous said...

Oestrebunny- I'm sure it is, but does it have validity?
If it can be shown to have a positive effect overall, if it is not a unifying force, is it love?

Eve- The thing is, we all have basic desires. As long as non one IS confused, then all is well.

At one time secular clergy were forbidden from marriage, though not from keeping mistresses.

Phish- It SHOULD be that simple, I agree.
But it isn't. Sometimes, 'Love' can be a dark force.

Gledwood- Hmmm. I don't know, but I hope they didn't charge too much.

Bag- I suppose that's the ideal of ROMANTIC Love.
You see, I wonder if the Romantic Love ideal is a good one.
Surely the only true Love is Platonic?

jmb- 'Why do we love one and not another? What is the chemical reaction of love?'
This is what bothers me. Surely it can't be right. We are supposed to love everyone, not jusy one or two.

James- Hardly. Though that IS a strong feeling.

Princess P- I'm glad you've found it, in a way that makes sense to you.
What you describe though, is something I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with.

Eric- Aren't most 'loves', infatuations and base addictions?
Isn't loving someone because they are our sole supply of physical comfort a little base?

Deadly and tragic. Indeed.
Do we need such sentiments?

Alexys- Yes, I like that.
Those sound good sentiments.

Paul- This is it, the word is used to cover so many nuances.
I think we lose sight of the TRUE ideal, the higher ideal.
Ms Buchanan is very lovely is she not?

Richard- I think so. We seem to try not to love very hard. I think it's the way we go about it that's wrong.

Helen- I agree, You can show Love as PART of a romantic relationship, but it is bigger than Romance and all that.

The TRUE sentiment is purely in the mind.

Anonymous said...

I agree that what we think is love can sometimes be an addiction. That's because all who love are alittle "in love with love" and that's addictive. I think love is caring for another more than you care for yourself.

Anonymous said...

Clown!Midget clown.

Anonymous said...

Welshcakes- I agree. For example, if a man says to a woman, I think we should just cease communication, because i haven't time to talk to you AND blog, not if I'm to have time for a social life too, she'd understand the logic and not accuse him of leading here on, just realise sacrifices have to be made in life, understand he'd had to prioritise and at least be amicable about it.

It's an interesting hypothetical scenario, but one which I think exemplifies the highest concept of love.

Ubermouth- Partly true. I am 5ft 7, but no, I never worked for a circus.