What is love, anyway?

[rj_anderson]

And if that subject line started Howard Jones running through your head, you are a true child of the 80's

Comments

Love

[anonymous]

Behaving in a manner that puts the other person's good first.

Fawn

[seemag]

When you do things for someone else because you want to, not because you have to.

[hedda62]

If I could sum up what love is in two sentences, I wouldn't be writing whole books trying to figure it out... but hey.

Nice answers. Except that, IMHO, the problem with saying that love means putting someone else's good first (and I'm sure this is not true for the people posting here, but it can be) is that it allows the lover to determine what the loved one's good is. And I think that's inherently dangerous. It can be as innocuous as "I think you should prefer roses to lily-of-the-valley" or as serious as "I think you need psychiatric committal" -- and yes, sometimes the latter needs to be said, but interestingly it ends up being said more frequently by those who also say the former

[lydaclunas]

I think that love is characterized by the earnest desire and concious choice to put another's good above one's own; to the point that you truly care about their well-being more than your own. On the other hand, you have a point that it can be dangerous, in a way -- but I think that ties in with the idea that "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak". Love, in itself, is pure, and anthing but dangerous IMO -- but our efforts to show love, and to actively put another's well-being ahead of ours, are not always successful and can sometimes be influenced and thus corrupted by other factors. It's not our nature to be selfless.

Of course, you also have a point in saying "don't be afraid of love". It can't be perfect, and won't be. Love is a challenge. But don't the most difficult challenges often reap the greatest rewards?

[fharraige]

I like what Marsilo Ficino said about it: "It is the desire for union with a beautiful object in order to make eternity available to mortal life."

Someone else said love is about extending ones self out of oneself to interact with another, thus bringing about spiritual growth to one or both.

In whatever form, love is bringing the spiritual to the level of the mundane, in order for the soul to aspire from the mundane to the spiritual.

That's my bit o' philosophy for today. :)

Val

[melwil]

Love is being happy when the person you love is happy and wanting to help when the person you love is upset or worried or sad.