LOVE - Page 1

LOVE
Better Living: With or Without?
 
Why does love even exist? What other abstract concept has had more power to affect the human condition throughout the centuries? Perhaps only the blind faith required for belief in a divine creator has the ability to inspire such changes.
 
Interesting too, that marriage for love was not the original idea. Marriage had been a carefully constructed contract to cement family ties and power.* In our American states, and also in a growing number of other countries, this emotion we call “love” is now the defining edge on the sword employed in demanding the right to be married, regardless of the sex of the partners.**
 
So, as I think about it, and I do— I think about those proclaiming that it is preferable to be fact based and unemotional in our mindful perceptions involving judgment. An emotionless approach, not hampered by a feeling such as love, is touted as being superior when making decisions, let’s say, that pertain to our human survival. Is that always true? I wonder. What would the world look like without love?
 
What about the role love plays in other species survival? There is love among the beasts being proved out in research; the howling of the wolves was just laid at the feet of love! ***
 
Love must surely serve some defining purpose that humanity actually needs. And this brings me to the idea often stated, that God is Love. So, then, what of the godless? Do they really understand, “What is love?” Is there a substitute that equally satisfies, instead?
 
Or, is there simply some kind of brain synapse deficit explanation affecting the desire for love, just waiting to be discovered? Yet, barring any such sort of a deficit, the loveless would still standout in contrast to what they must consider to be a large presence in the minds of the larger population—as a delusion by people determined to find “true” love. You know, the kind that lasts? Who doesn’t know someone they would describe as being “in love with love”? 
 
This love presence and the accompanying desire for it, is a huge motivator for good and ill. Surely, these intangibles are even older as any thing since discovered, that has been recorded in the past. Listening to current, pop culture music lyrics proves our human, insatiable appetite for seeking out love is as alive and strong, as it ever was. I would think there still will always be future writings, by the hands of men and women, timelessly and endlessly addressing love as a subject in literature and other art forms throughout our world. 
 
Love is just so damn powerful. Apparently, love is also a choice we all can make. Think about the power of that!  

 
 

  * http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200505/marriage-history
 ** http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/19/gay-marriage-around-the-world-2013/
*** http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wolves-howl-love-scientists/story?id=20109765  

That was long and leading in many directions, but I think I can see where you're headed.

Until this: Love is just so damn powerful. Apparently, love is also a choice we all can make. Think about the power of that!

Apparently??  Why are you equating love with power?  Power for what? Power to be used in what way, for what purpose?  

Travels, actually, there is not one direction where I was going!  But I'll go this one with you for a bit!

As to the idea of love having power, yes, if something is changeable because of love, like how a family is defined in our modern age, that would indicate its obvious power to me. You might try to answer the question I asked too, to further explore this idea, as to what would our society look like today without love? Now, if you can agree that love indeed has power—do we call it inherent, or can that power become, let's say, obsolete or extinct? 

 I surmise if there is no power in love, it simply would cease to exist.

Well, you still have to define what it is you're talking about.  Which kind of love?  Devoted love?  Friendly love?  Brotherly love?  Sisterly love?  All love?  You haven't even narrowed it down, let alone defined it.  In order to discuss what the world would look like without love, we need a description of what it looks like with love, because the assumption is that we currently have it.  Right?

Go ahead. Give me yours! That's what I want to hear. I know what I think! 

Give you my what?  I'm just asking you to clarify.  

beetree seriously, I'm not trying to be difficult here, I just would like clarification as to what it is you're asking.  You can't just throw a general, abstract term around and ask what we'd be like without it.

For instance, let's switch the subject to art.  What would the world look like without it?  Don't you first have to define art?  And don't you first have to come to a consensus as to what constitutes art?  Don't you run into a problem there?  When everybody's definition of love/art is different, you allow others to define it for themselves, you don't use the "power" of that love in any way that is directed away from it.  So I'm still stumped as to what power you're equating with love.  Yes, it can be powerful, but it can also be controling and vile, so you have to keep it in context.  What love are you talking about and what do you propose can be done with its power?

Travels! We are talking about love! Have you ever been in love? That is what I am talking about. Or, I am talking about the feeling one has for a child one births...that is love! It isn't a trick question! LOL Yes, there are different types of love, but I don't think it matters for this discussion, because the core of the abstract concept of love remains the same no matter what. IMHO.

You may simply want to say, there is no power in love. Then I would have to disagree, but I thought I gave a fairly easily understood example of the power of love, documented with the history of marriage and the way the laws about marriage are in the process of changing in countries around the world. I call that pretty powerful stuff for an abstract concept. What do you call it?

If there was no "love" existing today, what would be the reason for same sex marriage? Would there be another reason that would substitute the drive for the marriage right in the same way? I think we can pretty much agree in our enlightened modern existance, that it doesn't require love's past history as the desire to procreate. Sex isn't absolutely necessary to create babies any more, it can all be arranged in test tubes and petri dishes, yes? So, then, without such a purpose, is love destined to become less powerful?

So, take it to the next step! Will love become exinct without its historical purpose? And if you can imagine that, what does that look like? 

Maybe I'll play you a tune to remind you what love is....! 



 

This is love.

 

Well why didn't you just say that?  Love is powerful because it is a key to happiness, but because of that, it's personal.  That's what those who want it to be outlawed have no right to do so, it doesn't affect them.  It's balance, it nurturing, it's sharing, it can be all those things.  But love can be ugly, abusive and even cruel.  No, love is not going anywhere anytime soon, it's what fuels us to always seek freedom.