A Little on Love

from JoeUser Forums

Love- that’s a Pandora’s box of an emotion of I ever saw one.  If I bring up the topic in a crowd of people, so many thoughts will pop up.  There’s lost love, unrequited love, mutual love, friend love, parental love, and so on.  I don’t think any other emotions have so many levels.  Of course, few emotions are as great as love.  It’s something that makes you feel good.  You find someone you feel like you need, and when they feel the same there’s something as close to magic as you can get.

Funny thing is, there’s no real way to describe it.  It’s really quite hard to pin down.  Such an intangible thing.  Anger is pretty easy to describe.  The desire to bring down someone how has wronged or offended you in some way.  Yep, that’s a check.  Sadness is easy too.  A feeling of loneliness, loss, or just the feeling that things aren’t right.  Yeah, pretty easy to figure that one out.  Love, though.  You can sort of beat around the bush by saying it’s a want or desire.  Then again, that’s not entirely accurate.  Again, I have to retreat back to all those different kinds of love.  Romantic love is desire, that’s fairly accurate.  It’s all about the need to be together and go through all those interesting motions, if you know what I mean.  Love between parents and children is more of an affection though.  Watching someone grow, and helping them along the way.  There’s a desire to protect, of course.  So maybe desire is the correct word.

Yeah, love is complicated, but it’s such a universal feeling.  Chances are you’ll have it at least once in your life.  It can also be a curse at times.  When people delude themselves into thinking abuse is love.  Though I suppose love isn’t really the culprit there, just the idea of it.  The idea of it…as if love couldn’t get any more intangible and confusing.

You know it when you feel it.  That’s really the only way to go about trying to understand it. 

Or so say my idle musings.

 

~Zoo

writing
1,529 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hmm, it seems to me you're in a very philosophical frame of mind at the moment, Zoo. This is another interesting read, although this time around I think your lack of experience in this shows (I'm not trying to be provocative, just stating the facts).

Romantic love is desire, that’s fairly accurate.


I disagree. Love and the craving for physical contact are two very different things. Elderly couples, no longer capable of the action of desire, can still be particularly romantic. Oh sure, I'm not saying desire is not a factor, but this alone is not enough to constitute romantic love.

Many mistake physical sex for love and attach a romantic ideal to it. But sex is purely a physical need, a desire, if you will, for one to get their rocks off. Seperating physical from emotional love can be a particualrly difficult exercise, though. But it can be done.

The love a man has for a women, over years, develops into something so much more than a simplified definition can ever portray. And yes, abuse (in certain types of relationships) is as valid a form of expression of love as anything else although it is not particularly healthy.

But then what do I know? I'm just a bloke. I hope some women respond to this and give you their perspective. Between you and me, they have a much better idea.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

although this time around I think your lack of experience in this shows

Heh, course it does.  I'll give you a more updated version when I get around to a long term relationship.

Elderly couples, no longer capable of the action of desire, can still be particularly romantic.

Hey, I never said desire was sex.  Desire is but a longing, and that's the definition I was working with.

Between you and me, they have a much better idea.

Most likely they do...they seem to give it much more thought than we do.

~Zoo

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah, love is complicated


Oh...yeah. Ain't that the truth 'cause I'm still tryin' to figure it out...

...and good article Zoo, I like it when you wax philisophical!   
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I like it when you wax philisophical!


Thanks...I do that a lot, actually. I just started writing it down.

~Zoo
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Most likely they do...they seem to give it much more thought than we do.


I've given it a thought, from time to time, but still have no anwers, no clue.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
You're really feeling it lately!
This really made me ponder... I think everyone has their own definition of love. Its so deceiving and blinding... and wonderful...
Good job!
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
I found it really interesting to hear a male's perspective on love. I've never been in love, personally, but, I would think that love is when you care so much about the other person, that you want them to be happy, even if their happiness is not with you. Does that make sense? I don't know...I also think that when you love someone, you want to be their protector and friend; physical attraction is an entirely different creature to me. But then, I don't really know, I've had it. That's just my own musings.
I liked this one, good job, Zoo!
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

that love is when you care so much about the other person, that you want them to be happy, even if their happiness is not with you. Does that make sense?

you want to be their protector and friend;

Heh...that makes a lot of sense to me.  I live it.

~Zoo