I confess.
I started writing a post about love. It’s a blatant attempt at getting a few extra views on Friday since I suppose people will Google “Valentines” a few gazillion times in the next twenty-four hours. Maybe someone would read my brilliant treatise on love and also fall in love with my blog.
Then I did a little “research,” looked up a few thoughts about love, compiled a list of ideas and threw it all out the window.
And yet, here I sit, still writing about love.
Why?
Because I’m pretty certain I don’t know much about it. Its definition sweeps the width of the wide world. Poets, writers, politicians, philanthropists, philosophers, pundits and millions of others have written so much about Love. It just seems confusing.
Are we talking strictly romantic love, familial love, friendship, agape, charity, brotherly love, religious love, eros, puppy love, enduring love, pathos, twenty-five years and going strong love, sexual attraction, fifty miraculous years and still in love love, motherbear love, passion, infatuation, eros, affection, warmth, worship, intimacy, attachment, endearment, tenderness, sympathy, empathy, caring, adoration, idolizing, besotted, moonstruck, bewitched, entranced, amore, smitten?
I’m sure I’ve missed a few.
Even brilliant famous people don’t agree about love. I mean, look at these quotes:
“The course of true love never did run smooth.” ~ Shakespeare
“Love is a friendship set to music.” ~ Joseph Campbell
“Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.” ~Euripides
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” ~ Oscar Wilde/
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do…but how much love we put in that action.” ~ Mother Teresa
See what I mean? The definitions fly all over the map of meaning.
All I know of love from my few years fits inside this sentence:
“Whatever love you give comes back to you in some altered but wonderful way, eventually.” ~ Kami Tilby
May not be profound but that’s my take on it.
Happy Valentines Day!
Kami's Beautiful Morning 
1) Love is a decision.
2) Love is not primarily an emotion. Love is a verb. When you feel less, do more.
3) All love is unrequited. (Okay, I stole that one from Babylon 5, but it’s true.)
I guess that may sound cynical to the starry-eyed, but it’s what makes it work in my world.
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Oh, yeah. the above is all I really know about love. That and that you always have to work at it.
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Love definitely requires work. I agree.
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I like your three additions. Obviously, you’ve put way more thought into what love is than I have.
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My mother in law’s name was Lovis. She had never asked why which is a shame but decided that it’s ‘love is’ put together. Human beings are complex,. Love is – all the things you mentioned and many more and there’s no use analysing it. 🙂 good post.
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Thanks Mary. What a cool name!
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