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What is Love? Everybody seems to know - but let's take it apart and analyse it..??

In my website I wrote a post about Love:


What is Love? My mother always said jokingly: "Love is a funny feeling in the area of the belly."       

 But obviously there is more to it... There are two symbols of love widely used over the world: The red rose and the red heart. 

Religions in the world elevate Love to be the essence of being. The feeling of being loved or to love someone is so strong that it can be borderline hate. Love is the mightiest of all emotions...Hate cannot forgive, but love can. Love goes beyond the grave. I read so many times that pets, like a dog, love you unconditionally, they would not leave you even if you are starving and have no food for your pet. I watched a story on television once, that a dog did not leave the grave of his master and did not accept food from anybody - he just sat there with sad eyes until he died. We humans have the ability to reason, and it is expected from us that we use it if necessary and act differently. Most of us do because we simply have or find reasons to go on with life. Love is an endless generated feeling, but we have to be the generator, we have to love ourselves too in order to give love. If we neglect our feelings and senses or dope them with drugs or alcohol, how can we give love? When someone is left by a lover, self-pity sets in. Why me? Did I deserve this?  Think again, maybe it is your fault that your partner left you. Did you expect and expect again and forgot to give your share? Keeping love alive in a marriage is a constant giving and receiving, hard work sometimes. Complaining doesn't help, thinking of love and why you married your honey in the first place helps.
Karin.


Posted - September 23, 2018

Responses


  • 22891
    have no idea, never been lucky enough to experience it
      September 23, 2018 1:43 PM MDT
    3

  • Pearl - Love has an unimaginable range. Do you have a love for any actions, entertainment, pets? Do you love yourself? Or at least one or some of your relatives or friends? Your entire being maybe embedded in love and you do not know it. You might have a god who loves you??
      September 23, 2018 1:48 PM MDT
    2

  • 44175
    I have no idea. I wouldn't know it if I was smacked in the face with it. I've never felt it...only used by those who say they love me.
      September 23, 2018 2:53 PM MDT
    2

  • Your answer is one way to pause and wait what others have to say!?
      September 23, 2018 2:59 PM MDT
    2

  • 44175
    Hmmm...I'm not sure what you mean by that. I'm not fishing for sympathy nor kind words, just answering your question.
      September 23, 2018 3:02 PM MDT
    2

  • I meant it to be a bit funny, but the German funny bone has no chance with me being on the other side of the big pond. Thanks for your response.
      September 23, 2018 3:50 PM MDT
    0

  • 7280
    That's right up there with "what is the meaning of life?" as a topic.  There's romantic love, brotherly love, parental love, etc., so I'll just make a few comments you can apply as you wish:

    Love is both an emotion and an act that we choose to do.  

    Romantic love frequently starts out as a neurotransmitter storm that attracts us to another.  It may or may not eventually become the kind of love (an act) that will last a lifetime---and if it does, the emotional component of the act may wax and wane, which is perfectly normal.

    The Art of Loving is a 1956 book by psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm. Fromm presents love as a skill that can be taught and developed.(Redacted from Wikipedia) The book is still in print and available from Amazon. 

    I read it in the early sixties.  Fromm suggests that love involves care, respect, response-ability, and knowledge---toward the object of your love.  He makes a lot of sense.

    (The neurotransmitter stuff is a much more recent concept.)

    At any rate, those concepts have served me well all my life. 

    (Edit: misspelling) This post was edited by tom jackson at September 23, 2018 6:10 PM MDT
      September 23, 2018 3:21 PM MDT
    2

  • Thank you very much, Tom. Those concepts which served you well all your life are also mine. And those are really the most important ones.
      September 23, 2018 3:45 PM MDT
    2

  • 1305
    Maybe love is what is left once you eliminate all that stunts it. Love should not hinder the growth of another.
      September 23, 2018 3:31 PM MDT
    2

  • Wonderful point, kjames.
      September 23, 2018 3:46 PM MDT
    1

  • 22853
    A huge favorite of mine, Howard Jones, has covered the topic a bit in an excellent manner to me!
    :)
    The song is one of my favorites and I agree with Jones' lyrics.



    "What Is Love?"  Howard Jones


    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at September 25, 2018 2:27 PM MDT
      September 23, 2018 6:03 PM MDT
    2

  • 5808
    Better, best and bestest to just feel it
    and be it and know it....
    Analyze it and maybe miss it altogether.
      September 24, 2018 6:33 PM MDT
    2

  • Baba - I think one has to experience it first to be able to write about it. Analyze was propably not the right word to choose. Maybe feeling overwhelming happiness has something to do with it. Sometimes people tell me they feel happy, but I suspect the mean feeling love or being loved.
      September 25, 2018 2:31 PM MDT
    1

  • 1326
    "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things  endures all things. Love never fails" (1Corinthians 13:4-8)
      November 2, 2018 10:35 PM MDT
    2