An entry in two parts

[edg]

Amusing: you can tell the place from where I'm posting, lately, by the music I list. If it's video game music, I'm posting from home; if it's not, I'm posting from work.

Thoughtful: in your opinion, what constitutes love? Can it be quantified (two pints of like plus a tablespoon of unconditional), or does it exist only as a function of its qualities?

Comments

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Sure, start Monday with the hard questions! I can't help you on that, there are days that I get perplexed by why people are even friends with each other, I'm certainly in no position to tackle love.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

I think love is different things to different people, and each of us has our own little emotion formula that equals love. The trick, I suppose, is finding people whose formulae are compatible with your own.

[edg.livejournal.com]

'swhy I said "in your opinion". ;) I don't know what my formula is, exactly, but I know that it's different from that of ... probably most other people - and I'm pretty comfortable with it, even though it causes me a lot of pain, a lot of the time. What I'm curious to know is how other people view the phenomenon; I'm not really looking for "how should I...?" so much as "how do you...?".

[telerib.livejournal.com]

An interesting point they made during our Engaged Encounter was: Love is not just a feeling; love is a decision. (Then again, this is probably not news to you as a parent.)

The idea being: if my beloved upsets or hurts me, I will not being feeling very loving toward him. But I can "decide to love" (one of the catchphrases of the weekend), try to understand why he did what he did, and respond with love instead of anger.

Neatly enough, I think this can be applied to all kinds of love (except perhaps love of things like chocolate). Probably because it's more or less a restatement of the Golden Rule, come to think of it.

Without rigorously beating the idea to death in my head, I'd hazard a guess that all love requires respect and compassion. I can "love my neighbor" by respecting his worth and dignity as a human being, and doing my best to show compassion toward him. Love for my spouse-to-be certainly includes respect and compassion, even as it also includes personal fondness, emotional intimacy, and physical attraction.