What is Love Truly About?
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"I love you..."
How many times have we either heard those words or uttered them ourselves?
Probably quite a lot, although it may seem like its been a while for some of us.
Yet how deeply do we understand the meaning of love?
I feel inspired to speak about this today.
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The Simple Answer
You know how you derive pleasure from the good things in your life?
When you truly love somebody your heart finds a way to derive pleasure from 'them' experiencing those good things.
Good company
Good food
Good fortune
Good health
When seeing somebody 'else' benefit from these things serves to make 'you' happy - then you feel love for that person.
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Of Love and Hate
Similarly, if something to the detriment of somebody makes one feel pleasure then it may well be that one feels hatred for that person.
Of course the 'degree' of pleasure derived is as good a point of reference as any via which to determine the intensity of one's love or hate towards any person concerned.
Of course, the line grows a little blurred for certain kinds of relationships.
Even so, generally speaking, if the target person isn't in some way happy about that which has befallen him or her, then one deriving pleasure from such leans towards a hatred for the person.
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Of course, perhaps even worse than hatred is nonchalance. Some would say that a person who 'seems' hateful towards a person still has feelings for him or her - but to ice over one's heart such that the person in question inspires no strong emotions whatsoever?
Somewhat related to the cold calculating nature of such a person is that which I could broadly call 'The User'.
As the title suggests, the individual's primary and perhaps only interest in another person is to personally derive benefit from that person. I am not sure if comparing such to exacting a tribute is quite the right comparison but they are not against the idea of exploiting such a person (or persons) in their life for their own benefit, in a cycle of taking and taking and taking.
It is probably about as much fun as it sounds.
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Kinds of Love
Of course a mention should be made that different kinds of loves exist and some kinds of love do not really cross into the territories of other kinds of love.
The love between a parent and offspring
The love between siblings
The love between couples
The love between friends (of various sorts)
The love between a caring soul and the World
Of course, that which occurs between two persons isn't always constrained to a general list.
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Of Love and Vulnerability
While it needn't 'necessarily' be the case, love has a weird tendency of expressing its ways in weird ways.
Vulnerability is one of them.
When a person loves another, there can be an increased tendency to either neglect one's security or even to go out of one's way to appear or be vulnerable.
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It might be our human biology that serves as a driving agent here. Perhaps there is a reproductive purpose behind such tendencies that have developed over millennia.
Perhaps there are underlying needs that persons have that drives them to figuratively roll over an expose their bellies.
How we express this varies from person to person - but if I could generalize here then I would put it down to 'sharing'.
Sometimes we desire to share aspects of our innermost feelings and desires. Our hopes and our dreams.
We may even share more of ourselves, and this may involve our time, our thoughts, our money, etc.
Those among us who might suffer insecurities may seek a level of understanding that we do not feel that we could encounter anywhere else.
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To Conclude
As mentioned before, love can come in various shapes and forms.
Some kinds of love will express themselves in different ways - and I'll admit that I've chosen not to delve into passion or lust as while these can be a means of expression within the context of certain kinds of love - I feel that there is less chance for love to be confused with these through opting not to delve into them.
However the principle remains the same for all kinds of love.
To permit a situation where one derives pleasure from the happiness of another is to experience love for that person.
There is love in all of us - and while we may experience difficulties expressing it,a better understanding of its true nature may ease our transition to giving it wings to fly.
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I do wonder if anything that I have written here might have changed the way that you think about love. :c)
Whether you find yourself in agreement or not I'd really like to hear from you down in the comments. Perhaps you intend on approaching love differently - or perhaps you just realized that you hold a degree of love for more people than you realized. ^_^
Also, if you found this post interesting and would like to share this with your followers and friends then a resteem is always appreciated.
Sincerely,
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I think of love as an energy that is all the same, and then it enters a bottle and takes it shape. That bottle may be the shape of a romance or of a close friend or family member. I think of us as water in bottles shaped as human form as well...and the water inside is also love.
Thank you, @whatamidoing, both for your up-vote as well as for your comment. :c)
That is a very creative take on love - and I like it! ^_^
Comparing relationship types to bottle shapes is inspired. Some of us are simply more full of love than others but we are all capable of love. A few of us are simply 'running on empty'.
Thanks again. ^_^