The Idea of Love

Where did love come from hmmmmm? What do people do that makes us know they're in love? Hold hands and kiss, caress eachother's hair, hug....ummm, hold hands and kiss. That sort of stuff. But what you should really be asking yourelf is: when did these things come to stand for love? The time has come to burst the happy little bubble we've all been living in. Love has been determined by our culture. Who says that you have to get someone a diamond ring as a sign of an eternal bond. Who says that if you give someone a kiss, you love them? The answer is European literature. All the ideas of lovey dovey standing on a sunny green hillside holding one another in a sweet embrace came from the ideas laid down about love by the Europeans. We are merely copying what we see people doing in the movies. Love as a concept has been greatly misused. Why do people say their heart is broken when love has absolutley jack shit to do with the heart but with an area of the brain. I suppose it wouldnt sound as nice if someone said "your breaking my cerebral cortex" or whichever mechanism in the brain is responsible for love. If you ask me, what we think is love, is really desire. Desire for the physical contact of another person and the pleasure we get from it. A good freind of mine, Friedrich Nietzsche, said that we love our desire, not what is desired. The feeling of being in love, the happy, frivolous, light headed, care free feeling of being in love is what we enjoy more than the individual in question. Besides, if you desire someone and just want to experience the emotional attachment to another human being, this isnt really love. This is where we cross the border between love and lust. Lust for the body of another. This is promoted in our society to a huge extent. Every film you see seems to have this principle. A good looking guy and girl in unreal circumstances suddenly end up falling for one another against all odds and everyone walks home happy. This is disgusting. The whole idea of love as we see it is disgusting. In reality, what we call love, could really be considered just wanting someone else to turn to when we really need to. And of course we cant underestimate the pressures that our society creates with the whole culture of girlfreind and boyfreind and that if you dont have one your, to put it bluntly, something of a loser. This is nonsense. We humans have a love of not living in reality. If you saw someone you thought was 'hot' and you fantasized about them day in and day out and one day you realize that this person has merely been a restraint on your time and you've wasted emotional energy even giving two thoughts about this person when you could have been doing something else. What we dont realize, is that the world of love isnt all its made out to be. Say you finally become the partner of this good looking person and after a few years you get married. Much of the glamor that comes from marriage eventually wears off. You'll have kids, you'll live your life, but you wont have that dreamy, idealistic feeling you had when you first fell in love. Here's an interesting question. Did you know people kill themselves over love? lol, thats a rhetorical question because anyone reading this already knows that. Why do people do this. I suppose when the emotion becomes so great and so strong you cant escape it and it consumes you, pushing you over the edge. Is this what love does? Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? Some people cant handle losing love. If you ask me, love is more a burden than it is a blessing. Yes it seems callous to say this, but its true. Its easier not to get someone a gift than it is to just show up empty handed. Its easier to neglect a child than it is to raise it. Its easier to not to provide support to a family member in need. Love costs, takes time, effort. I'll be honest when I say that if none of us could love, we'd all be much better off. Dont try and examine this and say how it would make the world a terrible place. What is love? Love is something in our brain which attracts us to another person because of our reproductive instinct (unless your homosexual or lesbian) Is better for us, or detrimental to us. Maybe a bit of both. But is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? You tell me.