What is love?
When Jackie DeShannon sang these lyrics, much of her generation sang along. According to some people, love can climb the highest mountains, navigate the widest rivers, and swim the deepest oceans - but can it? Does to tell someone you love them mean anything nowadays? Bear with me, please…
At last, you’ve met him/her. THE ONE (and I’m not talking about any higher being). Your entire life, or so it seems, you have been searching and waiting as patiently as possible for this person to come around. You know who I mean. The one who makes your heart flutter. The one who makes the stars twinkle more than they did before you met them. You used up all your good luck on the day you met them, didn’t you? All logical thought processes have been conquered by the thought of making love on all the beaches from here to Kokomo. …am I not right?
I believe that I can safely say that a majority of people have been in love - or what they thought was love; true, undying, my-hormones-are-all-over-the-place-love. Is true love something you can describe in words, or is it something that you can only feel? Can you describe that feeling? The media constantly bombards us with views of what love is supposed to be. I’m not talking about reel love folks; I’m talking real love. The question I’m begging is: what is love, actually?
Love suggests that the relationship adjusts and grows as the two people mature as individuals. The dynamic process of love equals trust, a sharing of feelings, and growth of relationship. Growth is what strengthens the ability of a couple to live symbiotically, enjoy each others company, and depend on one another in times of crisis over the years to come. Love brings out the best in people as individuals. It’s about growing old together, people!
“I love Jennifer Aniston!”
“I love the Houston Astros!” (Or at least I did…)
“I love you!”
Depending on whom you ask, love can be a variety of things. Love can be described as altruistic action on behalf of others, a euphemism for a sexual bond, or perhaps merely being more honest than kind. The risk with this is that with so many different meanings for one word, it can end up meaning nothing at all. Two people might commit themselves to love one another, and at the same time have dissimilar ideas of what it really means.
When you tell your significant other that you love them, are you positive that they feel the same way towards you? Is this potent feeling you’re faced with lust or is it love? We’ve all heard before that love is then your eyes meet across a crowded room, whereas lust is when your tongues meet across a crowded room (ha ha, yeah… ). True love and lust are almost irreversibly entwined. When examining lust and love from a distance, it seems all too easy to tell the two apart. Lust is ground zero for hormones while love is the most ennobling of human emotions. That’s easy, right? Yeah…it is until the glorious day comes when you are intertwined in this mystifying chaos, and the only word you can seem mutter is “oi.” Don’t feel alone, we’ve all been there.
It’d be a shame if you haven’t read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet - the fine example of a lust versus love situation. Am I the only one that thinks that if things had not ended up so sullenly that their ardor would have taken a trip to the cooler? I can see it now: Romeo is spending too much time with his homeboys, and Juliet’s mother is begging for grandchildren to bounce on her knee. It’s these types of romances that feed us, or if you will, educate us on impossible loves. Is love what you felt with your high school boyfriend of five months? Tell me this: when you had your first kiss, were Lionel Richie and Diana Ross singing "Endless Love” in the background? Were snow flakes falling ever so lightly onto your wispy eyelashes as you clung to one another? I don’t think so. It was more likely the Deftones or Eminem while the armrest burrowed unmercifully into your kidney.
All things aside, I’d like to think that everyone hopes that someday they will find someone to grow old with. True love is an intense feeling of trust and respect that grows ever so delicately between two individuals. If it was so easy to find, it wouldn’t be worth a lifetime.
Step back for a minute and assess your relationship HONESTLY. Does it bring out the best in both of you? Are you sure? The prerequisites for attempting to distinguish your love interest from your lust interest from your infatuation are a level head, and the guts to confront the unpleasant. It also requires maturity and the ability to take a big step backward to study the whole picture. Tough, I know…but the result is more power and self-assurance as you skip (okay, strut ) your way toward love.
On the other hand, you could just take it from Dusty springfield, ladies: “All you gotta do is hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him. Just do it, and after you do, you will be his. You will be his” (riiight).
At last, you’ve met him/her. THE ONE (and I’m not talking about any higher being). Your entire life, or so it seems, you have been searching and waiting as patiently as possible for this person to come around. You know who I mean. The one who makes your heart flutter. The one who makes the stars twinkle more than they did before you met them. You used up all your good luck on the day you met them, didn’t you? All logical thought processes have been conquered by the thought of making love on all the beaches from here to Kokomo. …am I not right?
I believe that I can safely say that a majority of people have been in love - or what they thought was love; true, undying, my-hormones-are-all-over-the-place-love. Is true love something you can describe in words, or is it something that you can only feel? Can you describe that feeling? The media constantly bombards us with views of what love is supposed to be. I’m not talking about reel love folks; I’m talking real love. The question I’m begging is: what is love, actually?
Love suggests that the relationship adjusts and grows as the two people mature as individuals. The dynamic process of love equals trust, a sharing of feelings, and growth of relationship. Growth is what strengthens the ability of a couple to live symbiotically, enjoy each others company, and depend on one another in times of crisis over the years to come. Love brings out the best in people as individuals. It’s about growing old together, people!
“I love Jennifer Aniston!”
“I love the Houston Astros!” (Or at least I did…)
“I love you!”
Depending on whom you ask, love can be a variety of things. Love can be described as altruistic action on behalf of others, a euphemism for a sexual bond, or perhaps merely being more honest than kind. The risk with this is that with so many different meanings for one word, it can end up meaning nothing at all. Two people might commit themselves to love one another, and at the same time have dissimilar ideas of what it really means.
When you tell your significant other that you love them, are you positive that they feel the same way towards you? Is this potent feeling you’re faced with lust or is it love? We’ve all heard before that love is then your eyes meet across a crowded room, whereas lust is when your tongues meet across a crowded room (ha ha, yeah… ). True love and lust are almost irreversibly entwined. When examining lust and love from a distance, it seems all too easy to tell the two apart. Lust is ground zero for hormones while love is the most ennobling of human emotions. That’s easy, right? Yeah…it is until the glorious day comes when you are intertwined in this mystifying chaos, and the only word you can seem mutter is “oi.” Don’t feel alone, we’ve all been there.
It’d be a shame if you haven’t read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet - the fine example of a lust versus love situation. Am I the only one that thinks that if things had not ended up so sullenly that their ardor would have taken a trip to the cooler? I can see it now: Romeo is spending too much time with his homeboys, and Juliet’s mother is begging for grandchildren to bounce on her knee. It’s these types of romances that feed us, or if you will, educate us on impossible loves. Is love what you felt with your high school boyfriend of five months? Tell me this: when you had your first kiss, were Lionel Richie and Diana Ross singing "Endless Love” in the background? Were snow flakes falling ever so lightly onto your wispy eyelashes as you clung to one another? I don’t think so. It was more likely the Deftones or Eminem while the armrest burrowed unmercifully into your kidney.
All things aside, I’d like to think that everyone hopes that someday they will find someone to grow old with. True love is an intense feeling of trust and respect that grows ever so delicately between two individuals. If it was so easy to find, it wouldn’t be worth a lifetime.
Step back for a minute and assess your relationship HONESTLY. Does it bring out the best in both of you? Are you sure? The prerequisites for attempting to distinguish your love interest from your lust interest from your infatuation are a level head, and the guts to confront the unpleasant. It also requires maturity and the ability to take a big step backward to study the whole picture. Tough, I know…but the result is more power and self-assurance as you skip (okay, strut ) your way toward love.
On the other hand, you could just take it from Dusty springfield, ladies: “All you gotta do is hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him. Just do it, and after you do, you will be his. You will be his” (riiight).