The word "love" gets thrown around so much on a day-to-day basis, it's a wonder the letters haven't broken off and gotten lost forever. Or--have they? How often do you say you "love" something as silly as a pair of shoes or an ice cream flavor? On page 140 in Bees, August tells Lily,"We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving Coke with peanuts. Isn't that a shame we don't have more ways to say it?" The first time I read that line (Summer of 2005) I pondered it for hours afterward, desperate to find another word to replace the one that should remain sacred. And came up with....exactly nothing. It has never been far from my thoughts since then.
So, your challenge for this week, poppets, is to dig deep inside yourself and think about what it is that you really love. In order to do that, I think it would be beneficial to start out with a working definition of what love is. How would you define it? What characteristics would be a good representation of it? And then, at long last, ask yourself..."What do I love?"
Does putting a classification on things you have previously said you "loved" change your perspective on what the meaning of love should be?
(450 words/50 pts)
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Being a teenager, I have never been in love and I am so thankful. Love is such a sacred word that "gets thrown around so much on a day-to-day basis." I do not want to waste the meaning of what is supposed to be a strong word. I define love as simply being unconditional. It's earned and lasts what should be forever, but these days, love is mistaken for lesser feelings, and the result is usually pain. Everyday I walk around saying "Oh, I love that shirt!" or "I love this song!" Of course people have so many different interpretations of love that the love I have for my shirt is not the same as the love I have for my mom or dad.
I am a stronger person than people give me credit for. For me to love someone, I have to have the upmost trust and confidence that they deserve such a strong emotion. I don't want to get hurt (who does?) so I try and make sure to fully examine what I "love" before declaring it such a high affection of mine. I have always had classifications of things throughout my life so my perspective of love hasn't changed over time. As a teenager, I try and stay level-headed while most are naive.
I can easily say that I love my parents, there's no doubt about it, just like I love my friends. Yes, I love my boyfriend, but I'm not in love with him. So, here we go with the many names of love. Being "in love" and simply loving someone are two different things. Being in love is much stronger than simple love. It is a special feeling for your other half, a "tickly feeling in your stomach" as some say. I have even heard it referred to as, "That can't eat, can't sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of love." And I'm sure we don't get that feeling every time we look at our mom.
Everyone is different, so we have our own standards of what qualifies to be love in our hearts. I, myself, love my family, friends, laughing, and being on stage beyond anything in the world. Without these things in my life, I wouldn't be happy. I can sincerely say that I love them above all things that life has to offer. The feelings that I get when one of these things is in my presence is beyond describable. It wasn't very hard to choose what I honestly love because I think about this everyday. Having very strong expectations for love, I can say that my list is sincerely from the heart and has such an impact on my life that I can use the strong word "love" to express my feelings toward them.
Seriously, Ms. Bunje? This is, like, the eternal unanswered question besides the meaning of life. Okay... the definition of love. Love is a feeling one gets when they physically, mentally, or emotionally cannot live without something. It's the experience of fullness in your heart when you're around it or experiencing it. When you're around whatever you love, everything feels okay. Your world is at peace (most of the time), and you just feel good. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the definition of love on Merriam-Webster Online. Out of the many definitions I found, this is the only one I remotely liked: "warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion." It's the only one that didn't involve a person or a god. Love doesn't have to be for a person of spiritual being. I firmly believe that a person can truly love intangible things.
One of the best characteristics that show love for something is pure and utter happiness. Not the fleeting, second-long happiness when something good happens like getting a good grade or receiving a gift from someone. I'm talking the happiness that fills the soul and you can't help but smile. When you love something, that something totally changes your emotions. When you're around it, whatever it is can bring you out of the deepest depths of despair and raise you into the clouds. I think love has a lot to do with happiness. Most people don't love every single thing that makes them happy. However, almost everything that someone loves makes them happy. Almost being the key word. For example, tonight at dinner, I was NOT happy to be sitting next to my little brother. He had an attitude and was picking fights with my sister, my brother, and I. I can honestly say that I do love him, but I sure am not happy to be around him most of the time. But I guess that's true with almost all siblings. That's more of an unconditional love, which pretty much has to do with families.
Okay, now what I love. Honestly, I really do love my family. All of my family. There's not a single person in my family (besides my brother once in a while) that I would really wish to never see again. From my "ass-busting" lawyer dad to my crazy senile great-aunt to my cousin who's striving to perform on Broadway, I love them all. Also, I love my best friends. I have plenty of friends, but I truly LOVE my best friends. Talking to any one of them makes me feel so much better. They're the ones who understand me and all the problems of teenage life, because they're experiencing them too. Also, I truly love music. Music calms me down, makes me happy, and is a huge part of my life. I can't remember a day when I haven't listened to music. It wakes me up in the morning, and helps me to sleep at night.
Defining love has changed my view of how I use the word. I'm not going to use it so loosely anymore. I'm going to try and confine it to the things I truly love, and find other words for things that make me happy.
P.S. I think we should learn all 32 of the Eskimo words for love :)
I totally agree with Erin when she talked about the different kinds of love. We have a different kind of love for our family than we do our best friends. I know I'm not going to go up to my best friend and give them a kiss on the cheek and say, "I love you" like I would my grandmother. It's not the same. "That can't eat, can't sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of love." That is one of my favorite quotes about love, and it's from one of my favorite movies :)
Love is a crazy and amazing thing. Love is something that everyone should experience in their life. When I refer to the word love, I mean the true definition not the everyday average 2007 definition. In my eyes, love is a thing, an intangible relationship where it takes action and reaction to communicate. Love can be held within a couple or family. It is evasive, confusing, and mesmerizing. The communication within the relationship need not be perfect, for nothing is, but content in the thoughts and minds of the people involved. It is a thing so hard to find, so hard to obtain, and even harder to hold on to.
In order to really find the definition of love, I think one needs experience. Through only one interpretation of love will lead to a storybook like assumption, and that that relationship is the only one out there for you. Once that relationship is broken, you feel a state of chaos. It feels as if the world was ending and you don’t know why. That understanding of what you think love is will be biased and void. Only after numerous accounts of love and multiple relationships I think will one really find love.
So that brings me to the question, “What do I love?” As a 17 year old teenage boy, I have no clue. There is only one unwavering love in my life, and that is my relationship with my family. The relationship I share with them will be unmatched, like any relationship where love is involved. You may think that after loving someone for a long period of time, and that love is suddenly gone, that there will be no one else left in the world for you. I feel that that feeling is only temporary, and that the show will go on. You have to think in terms of the big picture when asking yourself what you really love. Love is not something that only happens once in a lifetime. Throughout the journey of life, you will find yourself striking love many times, and the only way to understand what the hell is going on is to relate it to past experiences with love. For us, since we have no past interactions with love feel like we never will have another one. I do not have any proof to back up what I am saying, but is there any proof to back up love? Do you really have to prove to yourself or others that love exists?
Putting a classification on things before you can truly understand love does change their meanings, because before you had a different outlook concerning them. If you say you love something that you really don’t, and then you are a liar. But if you really did love someone or something like you were so steadfast and staunch about than that is how you felt. There is no lying in that. Even after the feeling of love is gone, you still did not lie, you had a change of feelings. During the period where you were in love, it was true until things were broken. Once that happens, it is over, for good. Love can leave you waiting, sitting in solitude waiting for that something to come back, but if that is not the way the other end feels, then it never will happen.
Love is cute and assuring, but with the assurance comes a bitter harsh side of reality. There is no possible way in hell to understand why things happen the way they do, they just happen. It is impossible to end a relationship of love nicely, it has to be harsh. Things in life are not always nice and perfect. Love cannot have a safety net, because it will only confuse those falling into it. To take the confusion away, and ended relationship must be clear. Things happen for a reason, and destiny ultimately controls our lives. If that relationship that was meant to be resurfaces in 20 years, then it was supposed to happen. But for now, life is a journey, it is up to you to take it or let the journey guide you.
Bunje, you weren’t the only one that was stuck on that line in the book when you read it. When I read that line I thought to myself “wow, this is so true” and I just had to call my best friend and tell her about it; which she called me weird for again because numerous times I had called her out that week to tell her things I came to a realization about while reading the book.
But anyway what is love? When I looked on dictionary.com for this common word about nine definitions came up but that’s a question that I don’t think anyone can answer just like the question what is life about or something around that line. What I can do is tell you what love is perceived to be. When you love someone it is having the greatest trust and care for them. You love them know matter what and in any condition they are placed in. When you love someone you would give up your greatest things for this person just because love is such a strong word. So why do people use this four letter word so often? That I’m also not sure of but that’s just what’s society has come to. “I love ice cream” unless ice-cream is a person I don’t see how someone loves ice-cream because I’m sure they wouldn’t put there precious life one the line for a cup of vanilla ice cream. People use love because they feel as though “like” is not strong enough but then “love” becomes to strong of a word and then it is misused and has no concrete meaning.
For me love is something that hasn’t come my way. Of course being foolish and naïve I have said it and have had it said to me, but then its just another word that couples tend to think needs to be used to show the significant other how much they are liked. When love truly does comes my way it will be something great and cherished.
As far as what do I love, Bunje I don’t think I could answer that. I don’t think there is anybody in my life right now that I can say I have the utmost trust for but there are people that I care for and I don’t think you can have one without the other. That question right now is unanswerable to me.
As for what Darrell has said love is a crazy and amazing thing from what I have seen, but love is also something that needs to find you instead of one going around trying to find love for themselves.
Love…Love is this feeling you have toward an individual or something of personal value. I believe love is indescribable. I can’t name all the characteristics when I say I Love You to Rebecca Hartline. Rebecca and I have been together for a year and eight days. With out a doubt this feeling I have for her is indeed love. I asked my mom one day what love means and she said she couldn’t explain it. She said, “When you love someone, you’ll know what love is.” I have found this love but I can’t put all my feelings into one four letter word. Not only can’t I put it in this word, but all these other things I say I “love” like Pokemon or ice cream, I don’t feel the same way. When I love an inanimate object it usually means nothing at all. It just shows I “like” these things. But when I say I love you to my family, its way different also. “no matter what happens you have family.” My pop said. I love my family. I would risk my life for my family. I would get my family out of trouble and side with my family no matter what the conditions were. I too agree with Erin, Love is interpreted through so many ways. Thought objects of value, family, friends, and other people like boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands. Loving someone does include trust and comfort.
I love sunglasses, pokemon, ice cream,music, movies, books, certain animals, and pictures. But this is no way close to my family. And most of all Rebecca Hartline. I have never been so close to someone. Rebecca makes me happy no matter what happens. We don’t fight, we laugh together, we have no secrets, we trust each other, wedo everything together, and we have done so many new things with one another. When I say I love Rebecca, yes everyone I am in love. When I look at the different kinds of girlfriends there are only two kind in my world. Girl 1 is every girl in the world and Girl 2 is Rebecca. She is different from everyone else. Yes I would save her from a life or death situation. I see myself growing old with her. This isn’t some high school romance because we actually mean it when I say “I love you.”
It is ashame thought that love is the only word in our dictionary. Love is the only thing that describes this strong feeling for music and someone. I believe “love” has been ruined by people who simply don’t mean it. Love has been over used. When I tell someone I love my girlfriend I get a chuckle as a response. I don’t get a that so sweet and amazing. I get a little laugh that means, “so you think you know what love is. whatever” But I do love her. Its just this indescribable feeling. If you do describe love, it doesn’t capture all “love” but just a small portion of it.
With this blog being on the topic that it is, I did not expect myself to be the fourth person commenting on it. I honestly can't stand the idea of love - at least in the romantic type of way. I think there are a bunch of different levels of love, though. But mainly I think there are three types of real love - the romantic kind, the friend/family kind, and the love you have for things that simply make you happy.
Romantic love is the love that most people think of when they hear "love." It's the whole passionately caring about someone; mentally, emotionally, and physically, wanting to wake up to them every morning, missing them when they're standing right next to you, and all that crap. This is the type of love that I cannot stand, especially when you look at how many people in high school relationships claim to be in this type of "love." It kind of ruins the meaning altogether for me - so many people claiming to be "in love" and then breaking up for good? It doesn't make this type of love too appealing. But anyway, back to the point. The second type of love is kind of love that you feel for your family and your friends. It's like when you're at a big family dinner and you know that everyone sitting around the table really cares about each other, the kind of love that just brings people together. This is healthy love, whereas romantic love can be not-so-healthy sometimes. And finally, the last type of love, the love you feel for certain objects - the things that make you happy. Like you said, Bunje, this type of love is the kind that you feel for your favorite flavor ice cream or your favorite pair of shoes. Obviously these inanimate objects can not feel love for you back, but they make you happy anyway.
Now for the hard part, what do I love? What do I truly love? As you know, Ms Bunje, I'm not really into the whole love thing at the moment. We've already been through this. I'm sick of what people make love out to be and I'm sick of hearing every couple in the hallway saying that they love each other. Does anyone our age actually REALLY know what love is? One time I asked my mom if she and my dad were still in love. They aren't the lovey dovey type to always show affection for each other, even though they've been married 18 years, so I was starting to have my doubts about them. My mom told me that if you're truly in love with someone, there are different levels of it. First is the initial passion and whatnot - all the things love is cracked up to be - and then after that, those strong strong feelings are settled down when you're ready to have a family with the person you love. After marriage you focus most of your love on your children and whatnot; and that's why my parents aren't all over each other 24/7, she says. It makes sense and all, but the whole romantic part of love bothers me. And I don't want to be like every other person that's going to post on here and say "I love my dog, I love my family, I love my boyfriend/girlfriend, I love my friends." Because, sure I love my family and sure I love my friends because, well, doesn't everyone? If we didn't really love our friends, why would they be our friends? And whether you want to or not, I'm pretty sure everyone has some kind of remote love feeling for their family whether they have treated them like crap or not. But, me, I wish I loved something besides my friends and family. I could say I love softball. I play it all year long, and it may be one of the only things I really work at, but it frustrates me just as much as anything else out there and half of the time I'm going around saying how I hate it. Although I love my family, I feel like that kind of love doesn’t really count as anything right now because I’ll always love them and that sort of love will follow me around everywhere I go. It’s a constant feeling, so I guess sometimes I just forget that it’s there. Maybe the only love I feel right now is the third kind of love - I love strawberry ice cream and I love my warm brown uggs. Maybe, like Darrell said, I’ll find other love, love that really matters and touches your heart, somewhere in the rest of my journey through life.
As I thought about my definition of love I wanted it to be a general definition to encompass all that I love. My definition: love is ultimate admiration. When you love some one you love them for the person they are flaws and all. You can’t help who or what you love. I like to think of it sort of like instinct, like you involuntarily love with out thinking. I thought about the things I truly love and without them I can’t breathe. I thought about what would give me that feeling of no air and all of which were things I loved. In order to know if you love something it has to be your definition, because not all love is the same. My definition for love and yours may be different, but that doesn’t make love less valuable. I think that’s part of love’s flare that it can mean different things to different people, but that never detracts from its meaning.
If you look infatuation up in the thesaurus you see love. Love is easily mistaken for infatuation. The definition of infatuation is a foolish, unreasoning, or extravagant passion or attraction. Love is more than a mere attraction. But it can be argued that it is closely connected to infatuation, I understand where Webster may have gotten confused. People think of love as sometime foolish and unreasoning. Like the saying “love is blind” or I’m a “fool for love”. But love isn’t foolish, foolish can be defined as insignificant. This is the exact opposite of love. Yet love can be unreasoning, it’s thoughtless at times, involuntarily. This is why so many people confuse love with infatuation.
Another reason why love is often misused is because everyone wants to love and be loved. People go their whole lives searching for love. But you can’t look for love. Often when you go looking for love you will end up with broken feelings. Also it won’t be love. You might want to love something so much that you lie to yourself to convince yourself that what you feel is true love. Other times you run from love. Either way it will catch up with you, I think love always manages to find its way, But only when you’re ready. The key to finding love is getting you together. Sometimes people point the finger at everyone but themselves.
“What do I love?” I love Jason. Now a lot of people think that as high school students we’re naïve and we’re not capable of truly loving and being in love. I disagree I truly have found love, its weird getting all mushy in a blog put its okay. I love him because I can trust him with everything, and he accepts me for all my quirks. Not only that but he accepts me for who I will become. He’s not judgmental and even all of that doesn’t sum it up. Now of course I love my family and all that but I really wanted to hammer in how you can recognize love at any age whether you’re five or twenty five.
After reading "gretchen's" blog i have to say that as of right now she isn't capable of truly loving. I think in order to love you must be able to create your own definition and find something or someone who embodies your defintion. No one said love had a universal definition, it's impossible. You have to find the defintion that is for you.
Alright Bunje, thanks for the whole love blog! This has to be the worst timing ever, but I guess i'll have to manage. Love. I'm sitting here, at my Grammy's house, on her laptop, pondering a true definition of love. I used to think of Darrell when I thought about what everything love is. The one who you tell everything to, the one who knows your idosyncracy's, and the one who accepts you for your true, real self. Someone that excepts you for who you are and "loves" every part of you. And by my "love" i mean the one who understands, someone who's always there, someone who can reassure you and not leave you hanging out to dry. I'm not going to be private about this because I need to just type out what I feel about the whole love subject and everything that goes along with it. What I had thought defined love has completely changed in the past month. I thought I had found my true love. I honestly did, even though I'm a 16 year old junior in high school. Darrell defined my definition of love. When I look back on our relationship now, I still wonder what happened to make it go sour. He tells me things have changed an that's the way he feels. He says he doesn't have to explain himself. If you were me, would you be satified? After a year and half of what I thought was the perfect thing, he says this to me. I don't know what's going through his mind, and I'm convinced there is more to his reason. I know that none of this is my fault. It's all in his mind and he needs to figure that out. He needs to find out who he is, which was the sweet, sensitive guy I thought he always was. Well, I guess people change. It breaks my heart to know things have ended, but maybe he was doing me a favor. Maybe he's scared because he doesn't know who he is and I do and have known for so long. I'm not changing for anyone and maybe he was hoping I wasn't going to stick with my morals. I really have no idea, I'm merely trying to figure things out. Love is so complicated, if you make it. I thought I was the expert on the whole subject, thinking that two people who get along and are happy make love last. I guess there's more to it, of this I don't know and I guess experience will answer my question.
Love is such a touchy subject and it's so hard to even explain. I do know and there is no doubt that I'm always going to love my family. My dad is my hero in my life. He's always going to be there for me and I can count on that. I can also say that I love Erin Elizabeth Bridget Hall. She can always cheer me up and if we've ever hurt eachother it was out of lack of communication and those things were easily fixed once we've talked it out. Out one big fight was over Darrell, and I'm still so sorry to this day what I did to her over a boy. That's how I can tell that she loves me and that I love her. We get jealous, argue over petty things, but in the end it doesn't matter and we're always there for each other. And now that i think about it, after explaining how I love my Dad and Erin, love means something else. Love means the following:
1. Trust
2. Morals
3. Being your true self
I thought I saw Darrell's true side, and I'm not saying he's a bad person, but he's not the person I fell in love with.
Darrell said, "Things in life are not always nice and perfect. Love cannot have a safety net, because it will only confuse those falling into it. To take the confusion away, and ended relationship must be clear." I completely agree with this statement, but applying it to our situtation, we had a safety net, or so I thought, that was completely intact and secure. I thought that by talking to you to clear away my confusion would help. I tried to reach out and understand, but you were resisting, making my opinion that was once all figured out now unclear and tangled. I guess that's the way love works and I have to say that it sucks, big time.
I have to agree with Rebecca Marie Irwin, my best friend and someone I love very dearly. Experience will help you to understand the pain and happiness of love. You have to go through both to get a complete defintion of what love truly is, even though it is nearly impossible to give a simple definition. Having sat through Becca and D-Rel's relationship and the break-up, I saw that you have to go through that. Love and loss is all apart of life and although it hurts, we all go through the same phases. Communication and trust are such major ingrediants needed to have a healthy relationship, which me and Bec have learned through experience. So you see Bunje, experience is the key to truly understanding love, just like Bec explains in her blog.
I think the best way to start this blog would be with a song:
"What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more."
Now that that's out of my system, what is love? I think love should be one of those words in the dictionary with a bunch of different meanings, organized by little numbers. You know what I'm talking about:
love : luff (v)
1. to appreciate something with a great intensity, to be unable to live without due to your passion towards the subject. Romance is involved here. Ex. scene from the Titanic: "I love you , Jack," says Rose before her lover drowns.
2. to be used to something by living with it every day, to not be able to recognize life without it, love, without romance. Used most often towards family members. Ex. "Goodnight, Mom, I love you."
3. Slang. to like something tremendously, often used in this connotation when referring to a material or worldly object. Ex. "I just love these shoes!" Can be used towards another person; another form of love without romance. Used towards friends in this context. Ex. "You rock! I love you! You're the greatest friend ever!"
4. Sarcasm. to not like something, or even to hate something, but claim to love it for comical effect. Ex. "Boy I love reading Walden."
Common misuses: between teenagers pretending to engage in the act of love; between couples forced to be together that do not actually love one another.
Side effects or common characteristics of love include:
(Where romance is involved): strange, tingling ache throughout body when with lover, or even just thinking of lover, accompanied by breaking out into a cold sweat, rapid increase of heart beats, loss of senses when in lover's company.
(Where romance is not involved): not many noticeable characteristics; curious sense of responsibility towards loved object, such as protection for loved pet or loved family member (also found in instances where romance is involved) an obligation, duty, or accepted job of love.
What do I love? I love my family, that's a given. That would be like a number 2 love; sort of like an obligation. I love my cat, but there's not much to say there; he's a cat. I love horses, which is probably a number 2 love in the sense that I am not able to "recognize life without them". I love God. Definitely. And Jesus, too, though they are considered the same person. And I know He (They?) loves me. But what category would that be in? I don't romance God physically, but I do love Him passionately. Maybe he falls into the number 2 category as well. On that note, I LOVE my church!! (woo shore fellowship!) I also love being outside, smelling fresh air, even doing barn work, so long as it's outside. This might be the number 3 category; I like it tremendously.
I can tell you some things I do not love. I do not love Walden. I do not love school, because I feel trapped within its walls. (And remember, I love outside!) I do not love teenage romance, for to me, that is not love at all. It is just "teenage romance". Though I do suppose that there are some cases in life in which teenagers do live the rest of their lives with their fellow teenaged lover. (such as my aunt and uncle, who met in sixth grade and are still happily married) And I do not love what I feel Society has become, but I suggest this be a topic to another blog. : )
I completely agree with Darrell when he said that love is something everyone should experience. It is a wild emotion (so I've heard), not to be taken lightly, but still- to be enjoyed endearingly. I love the concept of love, and I do wish to be in a meaningful (romantic) relationship with someone when the time is right. But as for now, I am a teenager who's main goal is to graduate high school and to get into the college of my dreams for as little amount of money as possible. Right now, love is not my object, but instead a present waiting for me sometime in the future.
I do love horses, though. They're cool. And Jesus. He's cool too.
Oh, and I love Gary and Laina too!
and some other people I guess.
But still not Walden.
Reading The Secret Life of Bees, I also fell upon that quote and it really made me start to think. Love to me is that feeling that you have for those special things. The things so special that fill your body with complete joy. You feel so close to them that you feel that you could be one person. Overall, it’s the feeling that you have so much affection for a special person or thing that it over powers everything and is impossible to express in words. It is not just a strong liking, but a feeling that is so much stronger than like. The actions would be that you would do anything for that person or thing, and would do anything to be with them.
Love defined by Microsoft Word is the feeling of tender affection for somebody such as a close relative or friend, or for something such as a place, an ideal, or an animal. It also says to feel romantic and sexual desire and longing for somebody. But I feel these definitions are wrong because I think it is more than just tender affection and you don’t have to have romantic and sexual desire to love.
In today’s world the word “love” does get thrown around about every second. I personally don’t think the letters have been lost totally because I think the new meanings for the word “love” have come about and are holding it together in a new way. We just don’t have words to back up the new meanings like the Eskimos. I commonly say I love silly things like food or a shirt. Now after I think about how many times I say “I love _____” it really seems like it is used too much. I wish we could adopt some of the Eskimos words for love, so that we could express ourselves more efficiently and meaningfully.
Some good characteristics for love would be pure affection, happiness, and just a feeling you get from nothing else but that special person or thing. Really everyone’s characteristics of love could be different and in fact are. One thing I may find as a representation of love you may find as something ridiculous and non-loving.
What do I love is like the common what are you thankful for question. One thing I can defiantly say I love is my family. They are always there for me and I have such a strong feeling for them that cannot be compared to anything else. I also love my pets because they can be seen as my family also. But really this is just so plain, I know. You can ask almost anyone and they will tell you they love their family and pets, but I really love them so strongly and I would be nothing without them. I would do anything for them and go to the max for every one of them. And for my friends, I can say I love them, but I really don’t in the same way. Yea, we might share some of the same interests or just like being around each other, but it is not love. If we spoke in Eskimo language then friends would probably be right under the love I share for my family. Now don’t take me wrong, I really really like my friends and am thankful I have them, but I don’t love them by the definition of the English love in my head. And other than my family I am sure that I haven’t loved anything else. Hopefully, along my life journey I will find love and spread it to more than just my family.
Yes, the classification of love does change my perspective, and at the same time no it doesn’t. Now I sort of understand the true meaning of love after I thought about it more. And I also see how strong of a feeling it can be. But I know I will continue saying “I love you” to certain friends and I know I will constantly say “I love _____.” The blank could include food, candy, shoes, clothes, places, or many other things. Everyday I could find a new love, but I now know it is not true love. It is not the love I share with my family. It is just merely a strong liking, but not love. And for now the love I share with my family is my only real emotion of true love.
Commenting on Niah’s blog, I strongly agree with her whole little explanation about infatuation. It really is true and I agree with Niah that people do get love and infatuation mixed up.
Love, in its truest and most spiritual sense is underestimated by the people of the twenty first century. It gets short-changed by the media and businesses that try to use it as merely a buzzword to peddle some sort of worthless product to the general public. In order to truly comprehend love one must first distinguish between love as a noun and love as a verb.
Love, when used as a noun is considered to be one of the most lofty concepts ever featured in literature. It is an unconditional caring for another thing, which supercedes your interest in anything else. If you have a love for something, you need to be unable to live with it. Love is all consuming.
The most important thing to remember about love as a verb is that it is meant to be a verb, something you do. If love does not result in some sort of major action it is not truly love. If you can love someone or something and live your life as if nothing had happened at all than it is truly worthless. To love someone you have to how them how much you care for them, not merely in signs and words, but in your actions. You need to live in such a way that it demonstrates your truest feelings for them.
It’s hard to define what I truly love. I guess the best way to determine this is to think of the moments stick out most in my mind when thinking about joy. The moments where I feel like everything is just “Wonderful and full of delicious possibilities” as Younger Brother puts it in Ragtime. Let’s see what comes to mind if I let it wander to beautiful things. I love being on stage. Acting just makes me feel completely free. Going out with friends without any actual clue of where we’re going. Delanco Camp.
So far it seems like one of the things I love most would have to be freedom. I’ve never really thought about it but that’s where all of my real desires are aimed towards. So often I feel trapped my day to day life, so I guess what I really love the most is the moments where I feel like I have the freedom to control myself, to fail or succeed on my own merits.
I really feel like I’m cautious enough with my usage of the word love. Typically I try to use it only in situations where I really mean it. I don’t believe I really use it unless some part of me really believes it. That is unless of course I’m being sarcastic.
What I don’t love though is the cynicism I so often end up feeling towards the romantic connotations people hold with love. Like Emrow, I end up quite often end up feeling so cynical towards the idea of love. And damnit, I’m tired of it. I don’t like feeling bitter and sarcastic on the inside. I suppose a lot of this comes from feeling uncertain about myself, and at times unlovable. While the bitter side of my heart constantly tells me that love is simply a shortcut to pain, I feel like I really prefer the naïve simplistic half of my hearts that believes in all of the cheesy common conceptions about love. I’m tired of this intense moodiness that will occasionally come over me, and I’m ready for real joy.
I agree with Erin that the word “love” gets thrown about on a day to day basis. It’s true that love is indeed a sacred word, but what else can we use to describe our warm feelings towards fighting monsters in video games or doing ballet in private? Can we just simply like doing ballet just the same as if we like math? Love has so much depth in it’s meaning that it can’t possibly be described by using one word entirely. Hannah described love as a feeling that someone gets physically, mentally and or emotionally that a person can not live without, and I agree with her. We know from reading The Secret Life of Bees, that a person can not live without love. Lily was able to live on because of the love Rosaleen gave her and the love from her mother that she believed in. In the scene where August told Lily about her mother leaving her, Lily felt completely abandoned; she felt angry towards her mother that she couldn't control her actions.
Unlike Erin, I love people too easily. I envy Erin's strength, I could never really tell who I really love, but maybe that's because I'm still a teenager. Whenever I have a small crush on someone, I think I love them, but I really don't, I end up just admiring them and being friends. It's weird, sometimes I can't describe the certain type of love I feel towards someone, whether it be sibling love, admiration, or maybe real love. Love is so confusing that I really don't want to say I'm in love. It's a strong word that can destroy someones entire heart like Lily's at one point.
First of all, I can say I love my parents, because they brought me into this world. I love my friends, my siblings, my culture, and the dark starry sky near the ocean. Much like Erin, I simply love people, but I haven’t found real love where there’s this fuzzy feelings inside.
Different people, experience different love. Love is always so complicating, I don’t think I want to tell myself I love something if I barely know what love means. Loving a family member is a different love that I do know what it means, falling in love with a guy is something different, that’s the type of love I don’t really get. The description that people give about that type of love is a warm, fuzzy, breath-taking love. Is there really a guy that is that breath-taking. I believe that people just say they love that certain someone because they fell in love with being in love. No one really feels that fuzzy emotion inside themselves when they meet up with that someone. It’s just love, not fuzzy love.
As the Beatles once sang, “all ya need is love…” well sure, all we need is love but what are we supposed to do when we have all this love and we wrap it around everything little thing that may bring a smile to our face? Love is one of those terms no one can exactly define. I wish I was an Eskimo and knew these 32 terms because I would seriously try my hardest to use all of them when it fits best..but then again “love” has become such a huge part of my vocabulary it honestly would be impossible for me to use it less. It’s a wonderful idea to have a lot of different words to describe the certain love your referring to when you let the word slide right out of your mouth but, when I really think about, I don’t need a lot of different words. I know exactly what love I mean when I say it, and as humans, we can understand emotions and thoughts and feelings through body language and the natural reactions. If you have to use a certain term to explain to someone how you feel about something, that takes away from the beauty of understanding and true passion. Sorry for getting off track, but either I really don’t want to even attempt to define love or it seriously is impossible for me to do. Personally, I don’t want to define love. I want it to stay a mystery. I want it to be used to describe anything and everything you could possibly dream up. Where would all the twists and turns and excitement in life go if something as significant as love got dumbed-down and simplified to fit the meaning you’re trying to convey?
What do I love? I know I haven’t answered this blog the way you wanted us to and I know you’re trying to have us take time and think about what it really means to love something but I can’t. I know, I know, from the beginning of the year you said that we’re not allowed to use the word “can’t” ever again but I’m purposely disregarding that rule for this one particular blog (don’t take points off and don’t hate me Bunje). Alright, basically, I’m refusing to define love. I’m completely choosing not to even attempt to define it, because if I do, for the rest of my entire life I will constantly question myself if I actually love this or that, but as I stated before, this questioning is pointless because when you say you love something, you know in what way. Yes, I know, others may not understand the exact type of love you have for it but that is where the fun is. Okay, maybe fun isn’t the right word, but that’s where the opportunity arises for you to explain your feelings and thoughts about something. It brings variety and new interests into others’ lives. Do you wanna know what I love? I love Cheez-its! Do I love them like I love my mom? Of course not but I still LOVE Cheez-its. If people don’t understand how, or in what way, I love my Cheez-its, then I will gladly explain it to them and maybe interest them into “getting their own box” and who knows, they may love Cheez-it’s the same way I do and that creates connections and common ground with others. All these natural human behaviors are what makes life. I know I keep going off topic but, seriously, can you REALLY define love? And if you can, PLEASE don’t tell me your definition, hehe.
PS- for the sake of not ruining my non-existent definition for love I can’t (well I choose not to) comment of someone else’s blog because I don’t want to read it and have myself start questioning everything I love.
I just wanted to say that everything in Jon's blog after 'Like Emrow said..' really made sense to me. And I think that's exactly how I feel and what my current problem is. Thank you, someone, for understanding.
Love is such a touchy subject and there is no doubt about that. I have seen love change people for the better and for the worse. I am not sure I could every put an exact statement on the meaning behind the word love. There are so many kinds of love – love for family, love for a boyfriend, or love for a favorite food. Love can be used as a noun or a verb.
When I looked through the people who left comments, I saw what played out between Darrell and Rebecca. Rebecca, you’re my girl. I know Darrell is one of my best friends, but I have so much respect for you. You have been through a lot when you were growing up and now as well. I know losing Darrell on top of everything else pretty much sucks, hands down. However, you haven’t changed your morals at all. You’re still pursuing your passion for singing and your relationship with your father has and continues to grow stronger. I can honestly say I love you Rebecca.
I just got off the phone with my boyfriend and he’s so upset right now. His coach told him last minute that he wasn’t wrestling 130 tomorrow, but he has to wrestle 125 instead. From the beginning of his practice till his match tomorrow, he has to lose five pounds. On the phone, he was telling me all about how he has to lose five pounds, how he’s going to miss me at the match tomorrow, and how he doesn’t even like wrestling anymore… I’ve had a good amount of relationships, and the past two or three have been somewhat serious. This relationship is different. I know I’m young and I know it’s early in the relationship, but I’ve put Ryan before me in so many ways, which is something I would never do. I am not an ultra sensitive person nor do I wear my heart on my sleeve nor do I put my feelings aside for other people. That is just not how I roll. Though with Ryan, I break all that. I have become more of a loving, happy person, I tell Ryan how I feel towards him, good and bad, and I have put my feelings aside for his. He loves me for me and he never judges me. I can honestly say I love Ryan.
I have to go to bed soon and my dog goes to bed with me. I would have him sleep on my bed with me but 1) he’s super hairy (Siberian husky) and 2) he takes up my little twin size bed. Instead, I have a bed for my little prince. He snores and he twitches in his sleep, but I can honestly say I love him.
My mom is the ultimate source of love. She showers me with knowledge and advice and courage that I would be so lost without. She does so much for me that a simple “Thank you,” wouldn’t be enough. I can honestly say I love her.
I described major sources of love-friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, pets/things, and family. There is such a difference between each of them, but as I continue to think of a solid statement to define love, I realize the similarity between the four. Love is the feeling of stability. I don’t know how to fully explain the definition, but I know one thing: each feeling of love that I have ever felt is because I feel my life becoming stable. When I know my life is stable, and I am in a good place, love is at its finest.
What do I love? I love my mom. I love my boyfriend. I love field hockey. I love seeing someone in their own little world. I love life and all its challenges. I try not to put a classification on these things because I don’t want my overall feelings for them to change or to make one less than the other.
Wow bunje you always can come up with something that makes me not even know where to begin but here it goes. Whenever I’m asked to analyze love a whole bunch of different songs start playing. First off I want to set the record straight for people who may confuse love with infatuation, which many high school kids do. Love in the dictionary online has over twenty different definitions. But the main ones are:
1. A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
On the other hand you have infatuation, which means:
1. A foolish, unreasoning, or extravagant passion or attraction. See Synonyms at love.
2. An object of extravagant, short-lived passion.
Love is not foolish, unreasoning, nor short lived and that is why I don’t understand how people can throw the term around so loosely. In my own definition, love is a never-ending emotion in which you have undying compassion for a person or thing and love is the epitome of affection you can possibly have for a person or thing. To many times you hear people say I love so and so but I just believe they have a really strong like for them like em row I believe there are they different types of love romantic love, family love, and the love you have for simple things.
Romantic love is something I have yet to experience so I cannot really go into detail about this one. This is the love you have for someone who comes into your life as your mate who you know you couldn’t live a day without them. This time of love is not something your acquire overnight and takes some people a lifetime before they can finally understand the magnitude of it. This type of love will never have you leave this person when times get hard, or go behind their back to do something you know will hurt them in the end. This love also doesn’t begin to fade if by some catastrophic reason you can’t be with each other. This love is unbreakable and should be cherished just like your life. You know you have this kind of love when you can honestly say you will do whatever possible for them to any extent.
Secondly you have the love for your family and friends. This kind of love seems to come just by instinct. Naturally you love your family no matter how much you know about them you can just know that they are your family and you’ll be there for them. You never want to see you family fail and in all situations you’re looking out for their best interest. People may argue me about this but I think this type of love is unconditional especially when it comes to your immediate family. I know that whatever my parents and me go through no matter how life shattering it may be I will always love them. You learn to love at such an early age how to love and I think that greatly affects the way that you love. Friend you can love too like your family depending on how long you’ve known them but it’s different from your family in some cases. Not that this matters but Niah certainly could have mentioned the fact about how much she loves her cup spoon and lid (insider) but anyway I love my best friends a whole lot different than I love my friends I actually don’t even think I love my friends just the best ones. I love them enough to also go above and beyond to be there for them and I will never lose love for my friends because unlike my family who I instantly tied to at birth, my friends and I have built up the bond that we have and I think I close enough to them to not let anything change that no matter how much we may fight.
Lastly though is the love for the simple things. I love Spanish rice. I love vitamin water. I love summer time. And the list can probably go on and on about unlike my other loves this one could easily go away for instance I used to love cream of wheat now I absolutely hate it and haven’t eaten it for years. I can live without this stuff and go on in life perfectly fine. I do wish that there was a different word to express the way I feel about these things but I will continue to use love for lack of a better. So the English language is not perfect. At least its not like Spanish where casa means house and she married.
What do I love? I love waking up at five in the morning to make it to weight room before school, I love my parents even after they yell at me, or what about my friends I love even after we get into any arguments. Each love has a different level of affection and like Emily Rheault said love can be split into different types. Courtney Tomasello also wrote the dictionary definition and wrote how love is split into four different types. I agree with the both of them. Love has different types there is love for your family and friends, love in a materialistic way, love in a sarcastic way, and love in the romantic way.
Love comes in different types and each type has different levels. Family and friends love is an unchangeable love that no one can ever ruin. No matter how angry I get at my mom or how mad my friends may sometimes make me, in the end I still love them. This love for me does not ever change. Love in the materialistic way does not necessarily mean just materials objects but something that does not have the emotions to love you back. I love soccer but soccer doesn’t have any emotions and cannot say it loves me back. I love shoes but like soccer they cant love me back. In my first couple lines, I said that I love waking up for weight room in the morning before school, that is sarcastic love. I do love swimming and I do love how weight room helps me become a better swimmer but actually I do not love waking up at five in the morning. One day someone may become in love with another person outside their household that captures your heart and brings butterflies to your stomach. This is the romantic love that people fall into and they use towards their significant other.
After realizing the different levels of love, I have come to the answer I love many things. Each different thing I love has different levels of love. I love my mom and dad and brother. I love them in a way that no one could EVER replace. I love my friends because I know that they will always be there for me because they know I will always be there for them. I love SPORTS, food, animals (especially penguins), and I love writing blogs (he he). Under each type of love I do have something except the romantic love. I do not see myself falling in love until later in my life. I guess you can really tell since I have never had a boyfriend. There is one love that I have though that is beyond the measure of any human or material or idea and that is the love I have for Jesus. I believe that he is my Lord and Savior and his love is the greatest.
Although there are different types of love I don’t think there could be any other word that could describe each of them. If someone uses the word like in replace of love that just shows that passion for that idea is not as special as if the word love was used. Love has different meanings but overall it has the same affect on something when you use it. People understand when you say I love soccer you aren’t going to marry the sport but that you have fun playing it. Or if you say I love my dog doesn’t mean you love him as much as your parents. I believe that the levels of love is understood when you use it to describe something or someone. Things would maybe become easier if the word love could be changed for each circumstance but there isn’t another word that could have the same impact as the word love.
Wow. This is a tough one. Love. Well, let’s see I guess if I had to define love I would have to agree most with the definition Hannah found: “warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion”. I think love is a feeling of a deep level of connection with someone or something that brings about true happiness. I agree with Hannah when she says that love doesn’t have to just be for a person, it can be for an inanimate object as well. This takes me back to our list of ten things that truly make us happy. I think those my ten were items I truly love. I believe that love is something that brings you happiness that nothing else can relate to. I, like most of the people my age, am guilty of the redundant “I love those shoes!” “I love that shirt!” And yes sure I really do like these things, but not the same love I have for my parents obviously. I think society has turned us into really dramatic people and so what may really be considered really liking something is now classified as loving it. Just as the same way we may not like something and we say we hate it, when our feelings aren’t really that strong.
I think there are many different types of love in our society. There is a love for loving say an article of clothing or a materialistic thing. Then there is a love for someone when you are overly appreciative or thankful for something they did. For example if your friend helps you solve an impossible math problem your response might me “Thank you so much! I love you!” Then there is a love for your family and friends. This is usually unconditional where you appreciate them for who they are, they help you, how they understand you in ways others just can’t, and how they are always there for you. Then there’s the romantic love. The everlasting, perfect love that fills movies and books that makes girls all giddy. That love is true love. I feel like people throw around this type of “love” way too much. It bugs me to no end when people have been going out for a week and say they love each other. I guess I’m old fashioned when it comes to this, but I think it makes a lot of time to actually love someone. I like the idea Erin brings up about her loving her boyfriend but not being in love with him. I, too, think that being in love is different than loving someone. You can love someone and care about them greatly but not actually be in love with them and get those butterflies in the pit of your stomach, or them being on your mind constantly, smiling whenever you hear their name, or mushy things like that. I think since there are so many types of love, there should definitely be different words for these varying types of love. The Eskimos were smart when they had thirty-two different words for love, that would lessen the confusion surrounding the different definitions of love for sure.
So onto what I love. I love my family who has been there for me always and will always be the most stable people in my life. I also love my friends, more specifically my best friends who I would do anything for and whom help me so much. I love the beach because I feel so at ease while on the beach listening to the waves crash along the ocean. I love yellow cake with chocolate icing because it reminds me of being young and can always cheer me up in any situation.
I do think doing this blog gave me a new perspective on love and made me think about how often I do say I love something and how different that is from other kinds of love. I’m going to try and lessen the amount I use the word love from now on and think of other synonyms for really liking something to help express my feelings instead.
“L is for the way you look at me, O is for the only one I see, V is very very extraordinary, E is even more then anyone that you adore.” This is what popped into mind after I read this blog last night. Love is the feeling of sheer happiness that one obtains while spending time with someone or while using an object that someone truly could not live without. I believe that love and caring go hand in hand. If someone really loves something then they should, sooner or later, care about the object or the person. As Erin stated, I too throw the word Love around. The quote from Bee’s started a process of recalling all the things that I say that I love, when in reality, I only “like” the people I surround myself by or the items I use.
Love is represented in many ways, such as trying as hard as one can to ultimately make someone else happy, holding simple conversations that wind up reaching a wide variety of subjects in a short amount of time, and understanding the chemistry that is shared between two people. Personally, if I really love something or someone I will do anything for them. If I can open up to someone within a short amount of time of knowing them, like my best friends, then I declare them part of my love circle. After spending time with people, I evaluate my emotions toward them and if I feel they return the same feelings, then there is nothing stopping me from opening a little part of my world to them. Those are the characteristics I look for in people that I say that I really love.
After talking with Laina, period 2 in the library, we have decided to revolt against this blog. There are many different types of love in the world. The love for family is completely different then the love of a significant other or the love of an item or the love of a friend or the love of a pet or the love for traveling or even the love of going to some ones favorite restaurant. There is simply no way to dignify what I truly love from what I only think I love.
If I have to answer what I truly love then the only thing I can say is everything. I love my family because no matter how much we may disagree, I would love them. I love the world because it has so many opportunities for everyone to comprehend, traveling because it opens my eyes to new surroundings and new experiences, music because when words fail music speaks, sports because they are entertaining and exciting, food because I love tasting something and feeling like I could eat it for the rest of my life, friends because when a problem feels like a huge deal, they make it seem less stressful, I love things that make me appreciate what I have, and lastly, I love love.
I agree with Rosy, I love too easily but I’m perfectly fine with that. If someone gives me a reason to love them, even if the reason is infinitesimal, I will love them. It might sound like I become too attached to something or someone, but that is ok. This blog helped me to reassure what I love. It did not change my way of thinking about love and I’m pretty excited about that.
The first time I read August’s quote about love I thought about it too. The next couple of days after reading it I thought about the things I said I loved. I kept wondering how I could use the same word to say, “I love my dad,” that I used to say, “I love mint chocolate chip ice cream.” They are two completely different kinds of love, but the only way I can differentiate the two is by feelings, not words. Which left me with the question why don’t we just make up words for all of our feelings?!?! But getting back to the blog...
Love. I used to have a charm bracelet that said the definition of love is a passionate feeling of affection. I do not agree with my charm bracelet. I would not say just because I love my dad I feel passionate about him EW. I am not quite sure how to define love, but I think they’re three different types of love so I'm going to try.
The first type of love is a very strong like. This love would be used to describe your feelings for mint chocolate chip ice cream or your ipod.
The second type of love is more of the charm bracelet definition. It is a very passionate feeling or connection you have with a very significant other. This love word is thrown a lot, way more than it should be. This type of love is the kind that everyone wants to find, but so little actually do.
The third type of love is the most important. This type of love is a warm feeling of affection. This kind is the kind you use with your dad, sister (maybe..hehe), best friend, great teacher, brother, grandma or grandpa. Considering this is the love it is almost impossible to live without I would think this would be the true definition of love. All the other kinds need to just find their own words.
If I had to choose characteristics to go along with love I would say trust and challenges. Trust because if you do not trust someone then how on earth can you love them? I would say challenges because love is never easy. You have to compromise. You have to do things you may not want to. But that’s life.
I love my family. They are everything to me. They have always been there for me no matter what has happened through life. They have taught me things and showed me things I will be able to use later on in life. With out my family I would not have been able to make it through the things I have been through.
I agree with Darrel’s definition of love I think the way he puts it is exactly what love is. Good job Darrel.
=)
Love is a complex thing. It is something that is very hard to explain. To me there is two kinds of love. Like said before, I love soccer but I “love my family and friends.” Ok so now I am making no sense at all so let me break it down. When I am with my family and we are all happily together, I get this feeling in my stomach, butterflies I guess you could call them. There is just this overwhelming sensation that says, “this feels right.” I get that same feeling when my boyfriend looks me in the eyes and tells me he loves me. There is just that genuine care something way more deep then a care for coke or soccer. So I guess love could be defined as something you cant live without. One day without soccer and my life still goes on but one day without seeing my family or boyfriend and I am all out of wack. It is that feeling that tells you its right, the feeling that says its ok to be happy, that its ok to let loose and enjoy life because you have love. Family to me is very important and with out them I seriously don’t know what I would do. My parents are my hero’s and my brother and sister make my life just a little bit more interesting and weird but I will always love them. Now my boyfriend means the world to me. I have never been treated as well as he treats me. Not only does he respect me but he respects my family and that fact that I was theirs first and always will be. I love him more than I could ever love Oreo’s or even soccer. Yea its hard to say it but its true. Soccer wasn’t there when my grandfather got sick or my dad had to have open heart surgery but my family and Chris was.
Now one of the major things that separates love from “love” is your emotions. “Love” hurts and can leave you emotionally crushed. Now if you were to drop your favorite soda, you’d be ok but if someone in your family died you wouldn’t. I mean yes eventually you would find a way to cope and not be as upset but it would still be with you. I will always remember my grandfather and how much I “loved” him but I don’t remember when I split my favorite soda. These differences are significant to our society. It is true though that we use the word love to excessively and to an extent most people can not define.
I totally agree with Zander and that I don’t like when people don’t mean it. I had a long almost 2 year relationship before Chris and its hurts to even wonder if he truly meant it when he said he loved me. I will always love him to the extent that he cared for me and was there for me but times change, people change and things happen. I know deep down he too loves me back to some extent but we both have moved on.
What exactly is love? Almost every single person goes through the ins and outs of this question at some point in their life. Love has countless definitions given by our society today, and that’s part of the reason why we have such a hard time deciphering its true meaning. The best definition that I could find for love was in the Bible:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Corinthians 13:4-7
Ultimately, true love is when someone cares about something so much that they don’t expect anything in return. I mean, think about it. We first learn love when we are babies, cared for by our mothers and fathers. They know that we do not have the capability to pick up after ourselves, do the dishes, or buy them presents at Christmas, yet they love us anyway. Love does not necessarily make us happy all the time either. In relationships, the two people may not be smiling and laughing every second they are together, like sometimes portrayed in movies or T.V. shows. Usually, the people in the relationship will argue occasionally. Just because I fight with my parent’s sometimes does not mean that I don’t love them. I once read on a fortune cookie, “The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but hold hands”.
Now, what do I love? Reflecting on what I think love truly is has made this task a bit more difficult than I imagined. It may seem cliché, but I love my family, friends, and my life. Without my mom and dad, I wouldn’t be where I am today(really). I know they are there for me through thick and thin, as is my best friend Emily Mehler. What else is there to love? I don’t love my belongings or house or hobbies the same way I previously defined love. This is a lesser type of love. In fact, I don’t believe that this should be called love at all. We just have no other word for it. Thinking about this has angered me a little. The word love has practically been exhausted of all its meaning. If we love a new shirt we got and if we love money, it makes loving a person seem just as trivial. I can only imagine that this problem will blossom in the years to come. What are we to do? We must come up with other words for the various types of love, or else become Eskimos.
After reading some other blogs, I see how John Henry and Erin Hall can love being on stage, just like I love art. Then, after re-reading what I wrote and comparing it to others, I became extremely tangled up in my thoughts on love. It really has so many meanings. So many meanings that they become hard to describe all of them. I love those heavy downpours of rain in the summer that only last ten minutes and leaves the summer air smelling fresh. I love traveling and discovering more of the planet we live on, but I consider these an off-branch of what I regard as the main kind of love: loving people or a god.
First of all, I HATE this question whenever I get asked it. I have no idea how to explain love, because I don't think it is possible. Love is supposed to be something 'sacred', like a secret, and you're the only person who can feel it. It burns and comforts all at the same time. There are different levels, and types, which is why we should probably create different words to make things easier. But, even if it were easier, the true definition of love, at least in my opinion, would still be tangible and altered in every persons mind. Some love hurts, like when you lose a friend or get your heart broken. Some love doesn't have room for disappointments, like the fact that I looove sushi. Other love probably isn't real, the kind people just slip out of their mouth, like when someone lies in a relationship, like Devon wonders. So I guess each love has different characteristics like loyalty, happiness, comfort, wonder, amazement.
What do I love? It depends on what kind you're asking for. I of course love my family, friends, and my two little puppies. I love the people in my past who have changed me, and made me who I am today, even if the love did burn for a while. I love music and the thrill of shows. I love sushi. I love the days when all my friends are all in great moods, and the day seems infinite. I love a good book, and the feeling of finishing it. These are things I "love." But like most people, I dont think I can tell love from things that simply make me happy. I forget who wrote it, but someone said something about not being too upset about your spilt favorite soda as you would be about a family death. I completely agree, this is why I'm not sure if these feelings toward inatimate objects are really LOVE. In 8th grade I learned you can't love something not real. People should really follow this rule so I wouldn't need to answer this question so much.
If I had to choose, just narrow everything down into a few simple words to make what I love more 'real', I love my life and everything that keeps me happy in it. If I didn't narrow this down, I honestly couldnt tell you what I love. It's all too broad.
Also, I would just like to add I really like Darrell's definition of love!
"What is love?..." No, I'm not breaking into song like Courtney T. I really am asking because even after thinking about this for a while, I'm still not sure I will be able to answer it fully or correctly.
First off, I would just like to say that I think it's so funny how many people started off with a song quote, whether it was Leslie's Beatles song or Felicia's L-O-V-E, which is a personal favorite of mine. It really shows how much that word is used in the world today by the thousands of songs written about it. Love, such a tiny word. So how the heck can it mean so much ?! I really don't understand it.
I agree with Leslie that putting a definition on this word is really hard. The best that I can come up with is that love is being passionate, devoted, and encompassed by something or someone that you are the happiest you can be. Now, love, as said by most of my classmates, is divided into groups, like Emily and Rachel said. There are different types of love and each of them is actually completely different. My personal belief is that there should be at least a few different kinds of love. I actually sort of disagree with all the people who said that love should be divided into romance, family/friends, and things. Yes, this is a way that works, but I'm not really content with it and I'm not sure why. I think that love can be divided into your feelings. The first kind is around people that make you genuinely happy and you want to be in your company. Once in a movie, I heard loving someone referred to as "being able to stand them for more than 10 minutes at a time." This may be a bit of hyperbole, but the basic idea is still there. The love for a person is wanting to be around them, care about them, and worry about them. That love is probably the strongest kind because the category encompasses your boyfriend/girlfriend, your best friends, and of course your family. Another kind of love is the more of a want to have it. I often say things like "I love pink!" or "I love fuzzy pillows" or "I love peanut butter ripple ice cream." These are things that you love to have and that make you happy to have. They are inanimate objects. It could even be things like "I love my hair" or "I love that sunset." This love is just for the "things" of life that you can hold or see. It's the love that just makes you happy, but doesn't necessarily give you a nice feeling like a boyfriend/girlfriend or a mom/dad can give you. The last kind of love is the love for the "ideas" of life. I would just like to interrupt myself to say that I sort of broke this up into different kinds of nouns, but that wasn't intentional. This type of love is a love for freedom or a love for life or a love for laughing. This love is more of something you like to do or you strive to be. It's even a profession. "I would love to be a doctor/teacher/whatever." It's those little things that you love to be or want to embody.
Okay that section was really long. What do I love? Geez, this is almost harder than the 'ten things that make you happy' list (which I am still trying to work on by the way). But my love. I can honestly say that I love the people in my life. My mom is a great person and everytime I say "Goodnight, love ya," I mean it. She is so good to me and the best role model in my life that I truly love her. My dad on the other hand, he's not the greatest guy and I usually hate him, but I believe somewhere deep down I love him, sometimes. My friends, well I couldn't do without them. I love them of course. They are my friends, and as stated by Emily Rheault, if I didn't love them, they wouldn't be my friends. The things I love, let's see: pink, peanut butter ripple ice cream, sunsets, dancing, the smell of bath and body works, my birthday, the snow, shopping. The last category is hard to fill. I love my freedoms, that I can pretty much wear what I want and do what I want. I love my life. I love the idea that I am gonna succeed in the future. I'd love happiness in the future. I's love to be a good person. That's just an overall shortened list I think.
That is because writing this blog is actually making me think about what I love and how many ridiculous times a day that I use that word. I really didn't think that this blog would make me think about it because I was sure that I knew what I loved. Now I'm not so certain. It is giving me a better idea about how I use that word and the ridiculousness that some people use it with. For example, like Brittany said, people that have been going out for a week say "I love you." No, you don't. You are obsessed, infatuated, lusting, and any other word like it. I really don't think it is right or fair to say that you love someone after knowing them or being with them for a single week, or maybe even a month.
Besides my other references to people in my blog, I would also like to add that I respectfully disagree with Meghan Brennan's ending. She said that she wouldn't want to base what she loves off of this because she doesn't want to make one less than the other. I think that love for a person is much stronger than a love for ice cream. Yes the categories are different types of things, but still. I don't think any person on this blog can honestly say that they love their best friend the same amount that they love a pillow or a food.
I've been avoiding this question because I have NO IDEA WHAT TO WRITE. I usually have something to say about everything, but for some reason I don't really have too much to say about this blog question. But I know I have to, so bring it on, 450 words!
Out of all of the love quotes I looked through to try and stimulate at least SOME thought into this brain, I liked this one the best: "love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile." - Elizabeth Browning. Lizzy had that one right (whoever the heck Elizabeth Browning is.) I know it's so cliche to call love "an indescribable feeling" and I don't want to take the easy way out, so I'll try to define it. There are two classifications of love, as a lot of people before me have already stated. There's the love for people and the love for objects (like ice cream and shoes.) Obviously, the love for people is a lot stonger. I think that in order to love someone completely, you have to be your true self around them. That is how you know you love someone. Love is also something you have to work at, and something you're willing to work at. As the saying goes, "best friends make the best of lovers." I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I'm a supporter of this statement. I don't think it applies to EVERY scenerio, but most. Niah described infatuation to a T, and if you can't be best friends with someone and ALSO love them, I think it's lust. You are physically attracted to them, and that is that. To love someone, you have to be mentally AND physically attached to someone. I guess this statement doesn't apply as much as to the way you love your family (being attached to them physically and everything), but in a way it does. In The Secret Life Of Bees, Lily was desperate for her mother. She wanted to feel her mother brushing her hair or warmly embracing her. This is the kind of physical love that I mean, when applied to loving family.
I think it's pretty much impossible to not be bias when answering the question of what you believe love to be. You base your definition on your experiences, as we can see in Bec and Darrell's blogs. (By the way, Bec you're really brave to put your relationship and feelings on display in this blog, you go girlllllll.)
Of course I love my family and friends. Row made a good point about loving friends when she said that it's obvious that you love them or else they wouldn't be your best friends in the first place. I also love beach patrol (that's a given) and everything that comes along with it. Being 1 out of 8 girls on bcbp, I can honestly say that I really found who I am this summer, when I was around "the guys" all of the time, being nothing but myself. I felt like I wasn't ever being judged and I loved every second of it. And I am DEFINITELY in love with summer. There is no doubt about that. Every single thing about it, I love. I even love the sticky feeling your skin gets when it's 102 degrees outside. Just everything.
I think that's just about all I have to say. And Rachel, you forgot to mention how you love Chuck! hahaha
I’m so excited to write this blog, except, I’m really not at all. I think the word ‘love’ is ridiculously over used. Not that I don’t over use it myself. I think I’m going to make it a point to not use it so much though. I have never been “in love”. Think about that too. The saying “I love you” and “I’m in love with you” have such a big difference between them. Two words change the meaning of the phrase drastically. I don’t know what being “in love” feels like, and I’m not one of the believers that everyone falls “in love” during their life time. Not with a person at least. I think some people are, in fact, incapable of love. When I say I am I’m not being serious. But, I think that problem does exist. Some people are down right evil, I’ve come in contact with this type of person.
I have a definition of love; it’s from the bible, surprisingly. “Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous, love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offense, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.” I think I say I love a million things that I really don’t. What I do love are my sisters, and a VERY select few of my friends. I love a few members of my extended family, like my aunt Vicki, my cousin Thomas, and a very few others. Everyone else I do care a lot about, but I am not patient with them, I am sometimes rude, as are they, I am resentful, I am hardly ever ready to excuse, and I’m hardly ever ready to trust, or be hopeful. Unless I love you, I am not going to trust you, or have faith in you. I am not going to excuse you for wrong doing if you don’t deserve it. I am not going to have faith that I can endure whatever is coming with you by my side.
I say that I love a million different things: the color green, softball, parties, fall weather, hot chocolate, swimming in the ocean, and the list goes on and on. But, do I really LOVE them? I don’t think so. I mean, how could I possible put softball, a sport, in the same category as my sisters Alicia? That would just be ridiculous. All of the things I’ve listed make me happy. Some make me incredibly happy. But, I have a hard time tagging the word “love” with something that can’t love me back and never could, something that can’t feel, like the ocean water. The only thing that I love that does not have emotions. Is the concept of freedom. Everything else, I think, is some something you can REALLY love. I think we can only love people, and I suppose an animal every now and then. There are a million other words in the English vocabulary. I think it’s time that we stop using “love” for everything that crosses our mind.
I disagree with Meghan, and Joanna, and whoever else said that there are “different kinds of love.” I don’t think there are. I think there is one type of love. We have all just stretched that word out to cover how we feel about a million and one different things. I think we are all just too lazy to stop and think about how we REALLY feel and use a different word. I think there’s a word for just about everything now. So, I believe it’s possible to find a better, more appropriate word, to describe a “love” of shoes.
The word “love” is very overused today. People use this word for everyone today including animals, people, and food. The word has no true meaning anymore, people use it for anything. Love used to be an extremely close bond between two people, but that has been ruined by the people who do not see the strong ness of the word. When people say they love something today it really only means that they really like something. Someone should not really say their in love with a food because they are taking the validity away from the word love. The things I really love are my family, friends, the occasional girlfriend, and sports. The saying from the Secret Life of Bees that there are not enough words to say you “love” something is somewhat true. I believe there are not enough words but the true problem is people’s lack of vocabulary. Today, people only know the words love and like so if they would expand their knowledge of our language they would be able to express their feelings better. After evaluating the things I love I can say that the main things I said I loved I really do such as family, friends, the occasional girlfriend, and sports. However, there are things that I thought I loved and did not love and I was wrong with many. I thought I loved things like pizza and other things but you really can not or you’re taken away from the true meaning of love. Love is a connection between two people which is the strongest feelings there can be between two people. To say you’re in love with an inanimate object defeats the propose of the word love, it becomes just a regular word then. The definition of love is the strongest connection between two people that can not be broken unless betrayal occurs. The characteristics of love are vast from not being able to be away from someone, the person you can not live without, or the people that surround you everyday and make you who you are. I liked the quote on page 140 in the secret life of bees, “We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving Coke with peanuts. Isn’t that a shame we don’t have more ways to say it.” Because it shows how easily we can put people we care about the most in comparison with things like coke and peanuts which we could do without if we had to. This does not say much for the people you love if you say you love imamate objects just as much.
Love, It’s one of the most difficult topics to discuss, without sounding, either incredibly cheesy or like a bitter old curmudgeon. Thousands of sappy, pop songs have been written about it, thousands of dime store romance novels are published each year, daytime television is filled with stories of love found and love lost. We’re bombarded with this idea of love as something of extremes, great waves of passion between two people, that when they crash upon the shore, lead to tragic misery. Even though we see love as something of great passion and drama, I can still say that I love history, and use the same word that is used to describe Romeo’s love for Juliet, Lancelot’s love for Guinevere. I enjoy learning about history, but I wouldn’t move mountains for it. I find thirty-two words a little excessive to describe love a little excessive. So our one word for love is obviously incapable of dealing with the many shades of meaning of the word, but I find that the four used by the ancient Greeks more than sufficient. The Greeks used the word Eros to describe great passionate love, like the love between Romeo and Juliet. The word philia was used to describe the affection friends hold for each other and the love held for objects and ideas. The word agape is used in the new testament for the love God holds for all people, and the love all people should have for each other, this love supercedes all else it is the love that makes you give up your life for someone who you don’t even know. The fourth word for love is storge which is used to describe the affection parents have for their children and children for their parents.
What do I love? Well I definitely love my family, which would be put under storge love, obviously. I love my cat, I love reading as long as it’s good, I love sleeping late on weekends, I love some kinds of food, I love my musical instruments all of these would be philia love. I also hold love for my god which would be agape love. As for Eros love, I think I can safely say that I haven’t ever experienced that kind of love. I don’t think putting a classification on the things I love really changed my definition all that much.
I have always been the person to be careful of when I use the word “love.” I don’t like to through it out there when I really don’t mean it. To me the definition of love is to care about someone or something with a passion. For example I like skiing and sailing but I love my family. To love something is to really care for and look after whatever it is. When someone stands up for and protects their family to make them feel safe and secure, it is a sign of love. When two people care about each other to a great extent and make one another happy, it is a sign of love. Love can’t be acquired within days. It takes time to love something. Just a couple of days ago I was on the bus home and I overheard a girl talking. I heard her mention how it was her and her boyfriends’ one month anniversary. She kept saying she loved him over and over. When she was off the phone she started talking to her friend and told her how much they were in love. I sat there and just smiled. She may be happy with her but I don’t believe she truly is in love with him. Only time can tell.
When I was younger I used to always say I loved things. I didn’t know what the difference was and didn’t know what it really meant. I would say I loved my GameCube or I loved certain movies. As I matured over the years I have come to realize that love has a significant meaning. I have become more aware of the things that I truly love and the things that I like. I can say that I love my family, I love Megan, and I love some of my friends. All of these I full heartedly care about.
After reading Alli’s blog I would have to agree with her. I started to write this blog and I didn’t know what to write. I felt like I had so much to say but when I went to write it, I couldn’t put anything down. This is way my blog is very discursive and may not be clear. I would have to disagree with her when she says she loves sushi. I believe that now-a-days love is being thrown around and is just the norm. I know she probably really likes sushi and therefore uses the word “love” to express how she feels because it has a greater effect. Love is thrown around to make effect and express one’s feelings about something. I strongly feel there is a difference between loving something and liking something.
Love. Just four letters that mean so much to everyone. There isn’t much of a variety when it comes to loving. Also on top of that there are so many definitions for love. For every person you meet in your lifetime I will bet that there are just about that many definitions for love. So I think that I might just add my definition to that list. I feel that Love is not something that you like or something that you think is awesome because those can change. No, what I think Love is, is that it’s something that you cannot live without. A couple examples might be your parents or if your older your children. Love isn’t about how you think of it though. I feel that love is more about what you love than what you consider Love to be. I know for a fact that I Love my parents. Also, I Love my brother even though he might not even like me back. I feel that over the course of more than year I have grown to love my girlfriend. Although at some times she can get kind of annoying I think that no matter what I can’t live without her. Last but not least I absolutely Love both of my dogs, Sparky and Shadow. I say that I Love my girlfriend and I do but I think that a girlfriend is hard to make sure that you love because of the instability of the relationship.
Saying that you loved something means that the thing in question must not of had your love according to my definition. If something you love is something that you cannot live without than how would be living without this. There is another way to look at it though. If you love something and he, she, or it passes away and you use the term Loved than I think it is right because of the fact that your life shouldn’t be taken away.
I just want to respond to Rebecca’s blog I just feel that her blog in a way proves my point about dating. I do feel that it is possible to love someone while in a boyfriend girlfriend relationship. Also though I do think that Love is possible I don’t like the fact that a relationship can be broken apart in it’s prime. I wish that the one thing I can do is propose to my girlfriend before I either go into the Academy where you have to serve for 8 years after or into the military as a career. I realize that a marriage can also be broken apart relatively easy but it gives me a sense of security but I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
Love, what is it? Is it the thing we most enjoy doing? The Person we like the most? Our favorite food? The textbook definition of love is a strong positive emotion of regard and affection. So technically can’t this mean we can “love” anything we want or feel that special emotion towards? It is very obvious that the populace of today overuses this word beyond it’s true meanings, or at least what it is defined to be. However, like all things, words change along with their meanings and in today’s world I believe it is starting a transformation which is less potent then it originally meant. Years ago people would take you very seriously if you told them you love them, and it people could only say it if they were truly passionate towards something. With this less potent word, a new word will probably have to take it’s original place, because of the evolution of slang.
To me, since I grew up in this time period where the word love is overused, I will say that it is something that we think is cute, cool, entertaining, or just makes us happy. “Yo bro, I loved that movie!” Of course they didn’t really “love” the movie but it is the word that we use most often to describe how we liked something. By getting that sense of pleasure of something, we can now use love to say we like it. We may not feel a true sense of emotion or affection towards it, but people also don’t take as much personal response towards other words either that would seem horrible to say back in the day. Many people today will go up to a friend and say “Whattup my nig!” however this would be very offending to say before the 21st century if you weren’t black. So love has transformed into the things we enjoy.
The good characteristics of a new word describing “love” would be strictly towards an intense affectionate concern for another living organism or object. Note the word intense, not mild or to an extent, INTENSE. This is means that you are overwhelmed with an unstoppable feeling that overcomes your body when you think about it. That is the importance of the word that would replace the old meaning of love. The things I love, by today’s slang definition of love would be friends, family, having fun, watching funny movies, snowboarding, talking to funny people, and just meeting new people. I lve the things that I have and the things that I do, because life is short and I believe in enjoying every part of it. I love ice cream, pizza, guitar, computers, and music. So as you can see, I love many things, but I am not “in: love with them to the extent where the feeling is intense. Sure sometimes I wish there were a few different words for love that represent different levels of my love towards that things. Yet, then again I am so indecisive, I probably wouldn’t be able to choose the different classifications for these things. For the most part I would have to agree with what Danny says about what love should mean for the most part. However, since this word has lost so much of it’s meaning it is hard to say what the true meaning of love is anymore.
i am starting right now so i did post before 9...just not my real response :-) sorry
Love is when no matter how much someone hurts you, you can’t let them go. Love is saying you can not stand to see that person’s face anymore, but knowing that you can not live without them. Love is knowing that no matter what happens, you will always be there for each other. It took me quite sometime to answer this question. In fact, I had to write it down, carry it with me, and ask other people for help and it still took me three days to answer. But it came down to describing my relationship with Mark; the one I love, my best friend, my brother. I could have picked my mom or my dad, but they have done so much for me that I owe them the love, they deserve it. Mark has done nothing for me, except maybe teach me how not to treat someone. Some days he just plain treats me like shit for no good reason. And every time this happens, I tell myself I will NOT forgive him. But every time I do, and that is how I know I really love him.
I have to say that I envy the Eskimos for having so many ways to express love, with so many different words. I say I love my boyfriend, which I do. I say I love Kaitlin, which I do. I say I love Mark, and I do. But it is all different kinds of love.
It is true that the term love has been thrown around WAY to loosely. In fact, my dad just this second told me that he LOVES this movie. Is that the same way he loves me? A few of the boyfriends I have had have told me they love me and I said it back just because. I really have only loved one of them.
So what do I love? Well of course I love my family, some because I have to, and some because they deserve every minute of it. But, I also love the feeling I get when my dad kisses me goodnight, and the feeling I get when my boyfriend hugs me good morning. Is it the same kind of love? Can feelings have the same love as people? It is such a hard concept that has been ruined over the years.
Niah’s explanation of loving despite all the flaws seems to encompass what I said earlier. I never really thought of love as being voluntary or involuntary, but she seems to be right. People say it everyday, you can not help how you feel, and you can not help who you love, or what for that matter.
Love. There is so much meaning in those four letters. I don’t really think there is a real definition. It is a feeling you get that can not be put into words. Can pins and needles all over your body and butterflies in your stomach be put on paper? No. And neither can love.
"These three words are said too much but not enough..." By this quote, I obviously mean the overly common saying "I love ____." But what is love really? Like many of my associates have said before, love is something that is different for everyone. People show their love in different ways. As the saying goes, "that's why they invented vanilla and chocolate ice cream." Everyone has different tastes and, so, everyone will have a different definition for love. However, there will always be a common ground for everyone in their definitions. For example, as many of my classmates have said, there are at least three different kinds of love: love for family/friends, love in the romantic sense, and love as an exaggerated like.
First, I would like to say that I completely agree with Jon Henry when he states, "The most important thing to remember about love as a verb is that it is meant to be a verb, something you do." Like he said later in his blog, to paraphrase, love for something is the feeling that you cannot live without it. Like friends and family. Like that "special someone." Like soccer, or even sports in general (in my case). When one of these things is taken away, you feel as if a part of you were taken away, as if a hole were carved in the bottom of your stomach.
I think that things that truly make you happy are things that you truly love. When I looked over my list of “things that make me happy” prior to writing this blog, I realized that I do, in fact, love everything on my list. Soccer, the beach, banana cream pie, Christmas morning, skiing, hammocks, my family and friends, and getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist. (And, yes, Dave Mroz, you too.) All encompass the three types of love that I outlined previously, and all make me happy. Perhaps there is a connection?
But love is something that is felt more than it can be described. You know you love something when you feel it. No one can tell you what to love or what not to love. Only you can determine that for yourself.
To sum love up, Sir James M. Barrie once said, “If you have it [Love], you don't need to have anything else, and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter much what else you have.”
And, for Rebecca: “They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.” William Shakespeare
Love is a powerful thing. And, because it is so difficult to describe, I think that that adds to its value and mystique.
It’s really funny that this is the blog for this week because I just got done swimming where Devon and I had a little argument, and on the ride home, my dad and I talked about what I should do with the situation. Back to the question, though, I define love as an emotion towards something in which one cannot live happily when deprived of this something. With this definition, though, I also have to make it clear that when I say, “happily” I don’t mean smiling. Happiness is a state of mind.
By this definition, I definitely love a couple of things. I love sports, for without them I wouldn’t stay sane. I love my family, for I wouldn’t have any constants in my life without them. Constants are important things to have. If one thinks hard, one will notice that the people with stable households and stability in their lives are most successful in life. I don’t love any of my friends under this definition, for without any one of them I’d continue living my happy life. No offense to anyone, but my life isn’t dependent upon my social life. My health triangle is already so skewed that my social life is practically non-existent.
Love is the wrong word to use when discussing my friends because I’d be able to live happily without any single one of them. I have decided to make up a new word to describe how I feel for my friends. I loke them. It sounds really weird, I know, but I think it’s a perfect combination of like and love. Love is too strong of a word to use, but like doesn’t adequately describe how much they mean to me. Loke is the perfect word.
I say I love things, but I really don’t. I don’t love ice cream; I don’t love my video games; I don’t love math. It is true that I really enjoy these things, but my state of mind would not be affected if I lost these things. I say I love my friends, but I really loke them. Together, I love my friends as a whole. Individually, though, sorry but I’m quite capable of continuing my life without any single person. I’m proud of this fact because I like the fact that I have fifty people help me continue through my day rather than one person.
The only person outside my family that I think I love is Devon. She gets me through every day. I wasn’t going to add her into this, but I decided that she really does mean a lot to me, and without her I would lose all stability in my happiness. I know that this is making me seem like a completely whipped guy, but talking about this and writing this blog has made me realized, I am whipped. I miss her and I love her. Thank you Bunje for making us write this, because I have someone to tell I love.
Loving something is amazing. It can build you up, or tear you down. It's something that no one in the world should live without, and I pity anyone that does have to live without love.
“Love, love is like oxygen. Love is a many splendid thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love.” These infamous lines were shouted from the rooftop of an elephant house of a turn of the 19th century French prostitute by a penniless writer by the name of Christian, played by my love Ewan McGregor, during the movie “Moulin Rouge”. These lines diffuse a feeling that could almost encompass the meaning of love, but falls short. Love is one of those things that you can not quite define, but you will know it when you feel it. Love is a feeling, more or less, but most of all it is a state of being. Love is tangible, and yet abstract. It is figurative and literal all at the same time. Love, and being in love, is a bundle of contradictions and compromises. Attempting to form a concise definition of love, more or less the Cliff Notes version I suppose, I would have to define love as being able to feel every emotion (happy, sad, angry, and such) towards that one person, object, group or thing and to still be able to want to be around that person object, group, or thing. I love Kristen Sereci, but throughout the course of our friendship, I have delighted in her company, been livid at the way she acts, and been depressed by her “abandonment” of me. However, I still consider her one of my best friends.
I love kisses from puppies, cuddling with friends, watching old movies with Courtney Sherman on her couch, grande vanilla chais with two shots of espresso, sharing pizza and/or Chinese with the boy, and the innocence of undisturbed snow. I love my family, the boy, my friends, my dog, my phone, looking at Mac Book Pros, expensive chocolate, and the thought of college.
Here is where I will pull a JoeCamp and completely disagree with what EVERYONE was saying. Love isn’t overused. The problem with the word “love” is that it means so much to everyone. There aren’t levels or ilks of love, like Kim W. was explaining. Love means something different to anyone and is such a broad topic. As much as I hate when young teenagers use the word “love” to define their two week relationship that will end in 4 hours, it is a fair assumption for them to make. To them, it is love, for they don’t know anything different. On one “House, M.D.” episode, Dr. Foreman was quoted to be saying that real true love was “brushing your teeth next to the same person every morning for fifty years. Love grows, and is a learning experience, the definition of love grows with the experiences we have.
So like John Lennon, or Jim Sturgess if you prefer that version better, said “all you need is love”.
Love is one of the hardest words to define. There is so much lost in translation because "love" has such a broad definition. Merriam-Webster had 10 definitions, plus all the different forms of love and phrases with love in them, and answers.com had 8, plus the extras. These definitions ranged from deep affection to sexual attraction to a score of zero to a tomato (love apple). I think they hit the major types of love, although it's very hard to come up with a single definition of what love "really is". For this reason, Felicia and I feel the need to revolt against the blog. There are so many different types of love, that probably 32 different words could cover, but 1 does not. French is even worse, because they only have "like" and "adore". In French, you use the same word for a food you don't dislike as you would for a person you deeply care for and are attracted to. However, I think this (modified) definition from answers.com encompasses what I think of love the best: "a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection toward a living thing, especially another person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness." I think it's still a bit lacking, but it's close.
I agree with Erin that it's unconditional, rare and almost sacred. It's not something one bad trait or fault or one bad day can destroy. Like Jon said, something you love supersedes any other interest and is an active thing that changes you. Your actions and the way you feel about things are changed because you love someone. Love makes you feel whole, and "fills the holes life has gouged out of us," as August said of Mary. It's definitely not the kind portrayed in shows like I Love New York.
What do I love? I love my mom and my brother, and my close friends. I loved my dog before he died. I know that even if they make mistakes or do something I don't like, I'll still love them. I mean, I always say how much I love ice cream or music or summer, but a bad experience with anyone of them and my opinion of them will be changed. I would love them less because of it. Even with my dog, who I loved less than my family and friends, I still loved him despite the fact that he had eaten our dinner, our Halloween candy, gifts for friends, barbies, loafs or perfectly good bread and rabbit food, and then got sick on the carpet because of it, leaving stains and requiring me to clean it up, I didn’t love him less. Frustrated, yes. But unloving, no. Real love means you don’t have to like the object of your love. Liking them only makes it better.
Love, the word that carries its own form of measurement. Love is a word that gets thrown around. This is alright though; the amount of love can be measured by simple observations of what is being loved, and how the person says it. What the Eskimo's did was instead observing the measure of love, they created actual words. If our language was advanced like this, we could define what true love is more clearly. Obviously there is a line between love and true love. Simple love, or mind pleasing affection, for something like a band can end. There is a reason the word can be put in past tense, if something like a band is pleasing your mind and completely satisfy you can love something for as short as five minutes. The line is drawn though in between love and "true love." True love is a love for someone or something to the point where no matter what happens there will be love for that. True love brings warmth in the coldest situations.
What I love? I love my parents for giving me a normal home life. I love the ability to learn. I love music. I love books. I love life. No matter what you have to love the fact that you are given a chance to live.
Classify love doesn’t exactly change my perspective. It really just helps exploring what I love more in depth.
Responding to what Darrel said; I agree love is a very crazy thing. Love drives people to do crazy things. Like Darrel said love can be eluded, hidden almost, thinking it is the best thing that will happen in your life. But like Darrel said it can end, and it is rough when it does.
I'm not really sure why love is the hardest word in the world to define. My guess is that we've lost it, gained it, been denied it, hurt by it, or touched by it so many times that we don't even know what it even is anymore. In this case, I can not give an accurate definition of love. If I was to try though, I would probably say that love is like no other feeling in the world and when you find it, you never let it go. Love is an unconditional care or attraction towards someone or something. Basically, it can't even be described in words. I'm pretty sure that the only thing we can say for sure about love is that it is one of the hardest things in the world to find. Love is love no matter what someone feels it towards; However, I do believe that there are different levels of love. You can say you love a flavor of ice cream or you can say you love your mom. Although these two examples hold completely different roles in someone's life, love can still be a part of both. This is why the concept of love is so complicated and undefinable, I think. Love appears on so many levels, in so many ways. When I asked myself simply, "what do I love?", I thought that I would be able to make a list with ease. But beginning to think it through, I realized that I was completely wrong. I finally realized that I don't even know what love really is. However, i'm pretty certain that I do love a select few things in my life so far. I love my family above anything else, though. They are everything and more than i could ever ask for. I don't love my friends, but I do love my best friends. I'm extremely pick-choosy with who I let in and I refuse to be an open person to anyone besides the people I am positive that I can trust, and that's not many. So because of this, I really do love my four best friends. They have given me all of their trust and I can honestly say that I would do anything for them. I love God as well. God watches over me and I firmly believe that he helps me so much in life and he is there to guide me every step of the way. Aside from loving human figures and God, I think that to a certain extent i love material items as well. Maybe they just make me happy though, i'm not really sure. After all, I believe that there is a fine line between things that make someone happy, and things that someone loves. How one is able to decipher between the two is what makes the whole love situation so challenging. However, it is important to figure out what you love in your life so you can cherish it and know to never let it slip away. I know that I have said i have loved things previously that really I didn't. That only leads me to further believe the fact that the word love is used too lightly and has lost so much of it's meaning throughout the years of it's existance. Love will always have the same definition, but it will not always keep its severity. In fact, it is barely sincere anymore looking at how people use it today. This is very unfortunate, but love is a magical feeling and I guess it is better that we embrace it then completely deny it.
Love. Well I can tell you right now, I definitely don’t love my laptop, which just broke on me for the fifth time in the past two and a half years. Stupid piece of crap. Love is such a strong word. Even stronger than hate. Love has power behind it. Love isn’t the way you feel towards a tee shirt or a video game. It’s a strong feeling of affection, compassion, and attachment towards something. Darrell’s definition was perfect. It was everything I wanted to say but couldn’t put into words.
Before I wrote this, I decided to look up the definition of love. I’ve never really thought about it myself. It’s sort of like, “Oh yeah, I love that.” But none of us really know what it means. One of the definitions was sexual attraction or intercourse or something along those lines. That’s ridiculous. That’s not love. And the idiot who made dictionary.com should be ashamed that they would write something so absurd. Sorry, I sound a little cynical right about now. Like Darrell said (again), you must have loved to truly know what love is.
Love is thrown around so carelessly. I remember I was in 7th grade and I was going out with this boy. Ugh, don’t ask me why I went out with him. Seriously you guys. He couldn’t, and still can’t, spell the word because. Butttttt back to the point. We were dating for barely 2 months and he told me he loved me to my face. I just sat there and stared at him. What was I supposed to do? Did I love him? Hell no. Of course, this led to a huge fight. But why should we lie to ourselves and, more importantly, to others about how we feel? Don’t tell a friend you love them just to be nice. Being honest is the nicest thing to do. Don’t tell someone their outfit is adorable and that you love it. If it’s ugly, then keep your mouth shut. If you like it, say it’s nice. It really is SO dumb that everyone feels the need to say they love something every 15 seconds. People say the word love like it’s going out of style.
There are different kinds of love. I unconditionally love my family. No matter what happens, even when they’re jerks, I’m always gonna love them. I love Dave. And I agree with what he was saying about the girl on the bus. I love my dog….even when she gets shaved and isn’t as cute. I love my friends...but that’s more conditional. They can always cheer me up but if they do something wrong, it‘s hard to forgive. Most importantly, I love my life. Not everything’s easy but it’s worth it in the end. I think that basically sums up my list. I really, really like chocolate and clothes and my blankey. But would I die without them? Would it be unbearable to picture my life without them? No. Therefore, I can’t say I love them. Love is something so special that most people have lost the meaning of it. It’s a darn tootin’ shame.
I LOVE how Pete sounded smart in his blog and I LOVED how he actually posted a blog response. I honestly do love food almost as much as I love my dog. I love my family and I love learning. I love the mountains and snowboarding and mountain peaks with crisp air and a panoramic view of pure terrain. I love life and the air we breathe, unless if it’s infested with smog or fog or even dust; I love clean air. Love, love, love. “All we need is love.” That’s what I learned from Moulin Rouge. I’m pretty sure you can figure out how often I toss love around.
I actually figured out how horribly constrained we are with our language … this summer? Last year? These high school years are all mashed together to me. I honestly found that just using a different language can be just as good as having 32 different words for love in one language. I used lvoe for one type of love and alskar ( the svenska word for love) for another. But in the context of our language, there really isn’t an alternative. I was talking to Rachel in gym and I said that she could use adore or admire but does it really compare to love? But does love even compare to what it should be compared to? Well, in other words, is it as potent, as Pete would say, as it should be or used to be? Well, obviously no. Once again, Pete showed that. Words have changed and our culture has desensitized EVERYTHING.
So what is love, you ask? I do not know. We are told to love everyone and treat others better than ourselves. That is my version of love. Thinking of others more highly than yourself but not only saying it but acting it out. Love is an action not an emotion. Before I continue, I’m pretty sure that how I view all of this will be somewhat different than tomorrow and definitely different than years from now. So the characteristics of love would be putting others first, loving even if you don’t like the person, and truly caring about something or someone. I’m tired and sitting in a room full of people playing Halo. And honestly, I love it. I don’t think I actually love what we are doing, but the people here. Although we are running around on little tv screens using snipers and needlers and sticky grenades to blow each other’s heads off, the fact that we can come together even at church to have fun and learn about each makes me love these people even more. Although I throw the word love around, my definition still sticks. It really isn’t what I said, but I can’t really describe it right now. I think we all have a true definition of love that we think is true despite the way we use it incorrectly. No matter how much we look at our usage of the word, our definitions remain but quite possibly something that happens in our life might change that. Like this church. I use church a lot but it really showed me love so why not. Ok, that’s more than 450 and it’s dark and I’m babbling. So peace y’all.
Now that I'm actually reading some more responses, I agree with Jake, especially with the quote from Barrie. Although I agree with the quote from Foreman in Caitlin's blog, I don't really agree with what she had to say. I think there are different types of love. I don't love ice cream the same way I love my mom, and I think (at least I hope) Caitlin doesn't love looking at Mac Book Pros as much as she loves her friends or her boyfriend.
First and foremost, I think love is superfluous (based on my OWN experiences and my OWN observations). I am not going to define love as a deep feeling of sexual desire and attraction. I have a negative outlook on love, therefore I can either show my pessimistic views or I can try to be somewhat satirical. You can be the judge, and decide which path I decided to take.
The Encyclopedia Galactica, in its chapter on Love states that it is far too complicated to define. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of love: Avoid, if at all possible. Unfortunately, most people have not read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Love has so many definitions. On Wikipedia, a 12 page article tries to define love. It does no justice. I watch shows like I Love New York and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. The fact that reality dating game shows exist is evidence that our definition of love is slowly turning into a materialistic term. Love is that new outfit you bought at Macy's. And I will be the first to call myself out, since I don't want to be a hypocrite – I absolutely LOVE that new outfit I just bought at Macy's. Love is how I feel when I think of my friends, my family, my new outfit from Macy’s and my dog. Love is a score of zero in tennis. Love is all you need.
Love is also like crack. Once you have it once, you need it again and again and again. (Just wanted to make my word count go up.) In a way, love is similar to Myspace. It’s addictive. Everyone is in on it. Everyone needs it, everyone has it. Since love is like crack, and crack (being addictive) is like Myspace, you could also conclude that love is Myspace.
Love is passion. I am passionate about passion fruit. I love passion fruit. That passion fruit Vitamin Water, I’m all over it.
On a more serious side, I love technology. I am passionate about technology. I don’t know why, maybe it being the wave of the future and all. When I go to college, I want to be a computer scientist. I want to study and improve the way people interact with computers along with how information is stored and displayed on a computer. When you can’t find something to get me for Christmas, look no further then websites like Engadget or Cnet. The latest technology is always so cutting edge, and it’s awesome. That’s why I love it. And it shows, and everyone knows. I am the computer kid.
Megan hit it straight on, with the following quote: "Love. Well I can tell you right now, I definitely don’t love my laptop, which just broke on me for the fifth time in the past two and a half years. Stupid piece of crap." You poor girl. Get a MacBook Pro for college and I am POSITIVE you will LOVE IT! You will never have to call a laptop a stupid piece of crap again, I promise. And if you do you always have Apple tech support to complain to.
I have to also admit that I do too love grande vanilla chai’s, just like Caitlin.
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Sorry for posting this late Bunje. I hate excuses. I know. I worked on this last night and got about half done. I had mock trail tonight, and I worked on it a bit before 330, but then I felt obligated to do mock trial stuff since this is one of our last meetings for a while. Whatever. I don’t love mock trial at the moment.
LOL. The funny thing is, Laina, that I do love looking at Mac Book Pros as much as I love my friends and boyfriend. Oh, and Gary, kudoes for Moulin Rouge. Atta boy!
Well Ms. Bunje, you sure know how to pick them. Why can’t the questions be scientific or something like that? That way I would actually have something intelligent to say, instead of just writing a lot of nothing for 450 words, or whatever the minimum is. I guess a scientific question would be inappropriate for an English class though. With that being said let me begin.
Love is a strong feeling of affection, devotion, and concern for another or a strong liking for something. I agree with Emily R. when she says that there are three major types of love. There is the “romantic” love, love for friends/family, and love for objects, games, hobbies, and things of that sort. Romantic love is the love you feel for that very special someone, that one special person that you want to spend the rest of your life with. For Mr. Matlack, it’s his hunny, for my mom, it’s the escaped travel velocity gnome (my dad), and for you, it’s someone entirely different or no one at all. Love for friends and family is the feeling of warmth when you are surrounded by your friends or family and the feeling of concern you feel for them. Love for an object is the love you feel for your favorite shoes, favorite spot in the woods or backyard, or maybe just your favorite food.
As for what I love, I will be totally honest (What a surprise, huh?), I don’t think I really “love” anything. There is nothing that makes me happy all the time, no person, no food, no object holds that power over me. Love and mostly all other emotions have seemed to have eluded me through my almost 17 year span on this planet. I don’t feel sorry for people when bad things happen to them or when they die, I don’t feel a deep passion for anything, I don’t love anything or anyone, I just don’t feel all those humanly emotions. Because of this I have often been called a stoic bastard, and I don’t really care, I just agree. I’ll admit that I said “I love you” to my ex-girlfriend, but in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have. And she said “I love you” right on back and she definitely shouldn’t have. I guess I could say I love my family, they annoy me to no end, but there is just something about those oddballs I just can’t resist. When all is said and done, and I’m old and gray, I’m sure that I would have loved and lost at least once, but that day is years in the future, and I still have to make it through today.
I would just like to comment on Mon's blog. I agree with what she said about "I love you" and "I'm in love with you" meaning two totally different things. "I'm in love with you" holds such a deeper meaning than just a simple "I love you."
As a really smart philosophical guy named Sophocles once said, "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." We love things because they make us feel good or we genuinely adore them. I think at some point in our lives each one of us has asked ourselves what exactly love was. By definition according to Merriam Webster, love is… 1 a (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (maternal love for a child) (2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests (love for his old schoolmates) b: an assurance of love (give her my love)2: warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion (love of the sea)3 a: the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration (baseball was his first love) b (1): a beloved person : darling —often used as a term of endearment (2)British —used as an informal term of address4 a: unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1): the fatherly concern of God for humankind (2): brotherly concern for others b: a person's adoration of God. Personally, I wish we had more than one word for love. To me love is an unspeakable bond between two human beings who care so much for each other that they would do anything. At the same time however, love can also be the feeling you feel towards something that brings you great joy and happiness. I have loved but I have not been in love. Loving and being in love are different. I love many things such as my family, friends, the beach, and swimming, but like I said, I haven’t “been” in love. Everyday going through the halls of Oakcrest I hear couples who have just started going out say “I love you”, If that’s what love is then I don’t ever want it because someone always ends up getting hurt. I’m pretty sure however that is not the case and that when the right person comes along each of us will realize it. Well hopefully. I agree with Mikey when he says “The fact that reality dating game shows exist is evidence that our definition of love is slowly turning into a materialistic term.” People are spending too much time searching for love when sometimes you just need to let it find you.
I love my family. They are always there for me and I can count on them for that no matter what. I love my friends. Whenever I need to talk they are there. I love swimming. It is something I can relieve stress with as well as I just plain love it. There is no other way to describe it. I love the beach. It always makes me feel calm and relaxed and I just love the atmosphere of it. Now that I have had to classify love I think that I do use love sometimes for things I just like. But sometimes it’s more than a like but less than a love so what are you supposed to say? I guess I will end with one of my favorite quotes of all time. "Love doesn't make the world go round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile." - Elizabeth Browning
I think love is used way too much. “I love this shirt. I love those shoes. I love this song. What is love anymore except the simple definition of “like”? The word "love" does get thrown around so much on a day-to-day basis, that I think a lot of people really do misunderstand the true definition. But what is the definition of love? I agree with Niah’s definition that love is ultimate admiration and when you love some one you love them for the person they are flaws and all. Being in high school, I am not sure if I can completely comprehend what it feels like to be in love. A lot of people in high school say “I love Mark” then the next week “I love Johnny” and then two months from then, they “love” someone else. These are the people who abuse the word “love” and make it a lot less meaningful for others when two people really mean it. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that it is impossible to be in love young because plenty of people have went on to marry their high school sweethearts. I just think that too many people use the word “love” to fill an empty space and make themselves feel better about certain situations. Even though I do not think I am sure what it feels like “to be in love”, I am sure I know what it feels like to be loved because of the wonderful people I call my family. My family has always showed me what the characteristics are of a good representation of love. Love brings out a lot of characteristics of what is to have appreciation for someone. It is a lot easier to identify love when someone has loved you. The feeling of being unloved when you need love the most is probably the worst feeling in the world. Love lets you feel what it is to be accepted. Love is something that you should not take for granted and that’s what makes me come to the final question. What do I love? Well, I guess after putting all of my thoughts out in writing, it makes me think about what my answer should be. Earlier today, I would probably have answered: Well, I love chocolate ice cream, sleeping, text messages on my phone and fun parties. But I think my perspectives on love have changed and I think that is good. Now, my answer to the question is that I love my family, friends, and life. I love these things because I care about them and they make me happy which goes to show why ultimate admiration is the true definition of love.
"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
That is my absolute passage of the Bible. I thought that this definition was the best definition out there. But now I'm not so sure. Coincidentally, my boyfriend is sitting right next to me as I write this. I had the courage to ask him what he thougt, and this is what he said.
"Love has different meanings for different people. For some people, love is a committment to protect, live, and die for somone. For others, love is just another emotional state, like depression or happiness."
For me, love is the feeling towards something that will never change.It is a committment that your heart makes, almost subconsciously. Throughout my life, I will always love cheese (one of my favorite foods)no matter how many times I have it. I will always love my hometown, where I grew up, no matter how many times I move. I will always love my boyfriend, even long after we've broken up.
When I was reading Erin's blog, I couldn't disagree more. I believe that you shouldn't be afraid to love. It is unique, and I'm not trying to say it isn't. But love is unique each and every time, and it shouldn't be kept inside. Love should be shared with everyone.
Love is one of those words like "which" and "witch", just not spelled differently. Love an object brings about a different connotation then love for a person.
Characteristics of love. I would have to say they are the same things as what my boyfriend said. When you love someone, you are protective, and you stick up for them, and you put them on pedestal and never take them down. No matter what happens. When you love a person, you show patience and kindness, you reward them for their right doings, you don't get jealous, and you don't boast.
Characteristics of love for an object are different. For an object, you just usually always want it. You show a desire for it at any moment. I love the movie, "A Cinderella Story" and I would be willing to watch it at any moment.
What I love. I love my family, my friends, my boyfriend, going to church, grapefruit, green apples,my cell phone, my iPod, my laptop, my country. The list can go on and on.
My perception of love has not changed. It is universally known that love for a car is different than love for a person. The context in which the word "love" is used, brings different connotations to the meaning. The more personified the object, the stronger the word love means. But love to any object, or person, or animal, is simply a committment made to that thing, person, or animal, that you will always care for them or it. Love can not be changed.
Love is a very misused word. I'm not telling anyone they didn't love anyone else but when itis rarely ever true love. I'm not going to sit here and cry about my relationship which everyone knows i no longer have. Some say it is disputable, but i do truly beleive i loved her.
Now that i have that off my chest, loved is a very hard word to define. Truly i think the only things you can truly love are people and life. I agree with Erin, love should always be there no matter what happens. For example, everyone knows i'm practically married to blake, so if something were to happen when i were to get mad at him, i couldn't stop loving him. And, no-homo..., yes i love blake. I don't know what i would do without him. We can't live without eachother and we both know that. When you love someone, you would do anything for them to be happy, anything.
Love is a very complicated word. As i said before, it is always thrown around. I try not to throw it around and encourage my friends not to as well, so when i say i love something or someone at least 90 percent of the time i truly mean it.
Another thing, you shouldn't go around chasing love. If you do, you'll end up empty handed and broken hearted. Now if you let it come to you and just have fun then you'll be hit right in the mouth with a great relationship.
Love also makes you do things you wouldn't normally do for a person, say spend your whole paycheck on a gift just to see the smile in their face when they open it. It can make you go out of your way to do something for them, and even override everything you had scheduled in your day just to see them. I'm sorry if it seems like i'm babbling but its hard. Love is such a complicated word and emotion, and you don't really know what you love until it is gone, even if only for a moment, but you'll know what it is when you get the feeling.
Finally, my sister got off the computer! Ok, love. Since around the age of thirteen, I've thrown the word love around to my little boyfriends, but I never meant it. Love? Never! Not them. This word was constantly thrown around on the phone after just a day of meeting a boy. Once they'd tell me, I felt obligated to tell them the same. Now I sit here and question myself; was it all a lie to what I told those other boys, all the boys I told I love them? I've came to realize that I wasn't lying, but being as young and callow as I was at the time, I did not know any better. I've pondered on this question for a few minutes, trying to convey my point on what exactly I believed love was. To me, love is God. I believe in God very strongly, and he is whom Christians should love first and foremost. Until then, we love nothing; yes I said it, nothing. That's what I believe. I didn't come up this that definition until yesterday night; I was talking to my father. During our conversation, he questioned AJ and me. I told him that we were the same; happy, and still dating. I finally admitted to my dad that I actually love AJ. He asked me how I knew that it was love. I told him how I felt about AJ. I informed him on how we laugh together, cry together, and spend every extra moment we have together. I think of him constantly while he's thinking of me. I put him before a lot, and he does the same for me. I truly LOVE Aaron Smith, AJ's full name.
Love grows. It has to. Take this into consideration. Everyone loves their mother. People who have a normal, comfortable relationship with their mothers usually love them. Well, even their moms, not mothers, or whoever cares for them. What ever the case, the day you are first born, you do not love your mom, it grows. The first day people meet their spouses, they do not love them.
I say I love my friends. But do I? I believe so; I care for them deeply, so much to the point where I wouldn't know what to do if they'd leave my life. Does that mean that I love them? Maybe, maybe not. I'd be hurt if pancakes left me too. However, pancakes and my best friends are totally separate. Yes, I love my friends. There is also something I have thought of called "conditional love." Conditional love is when you love a person until something happens. For example, you love your boyfriend until he does you wrong and you love your mom until she does something you hate. Does this change love? I just believe the two loves are different. I will never turn my back on God. Being as though God is love, I know I will always love God.
I like music, but I love my grandmother. I like computers; however I love God so much more. I like smelling good, but I love my mother. See, these are so different. And, like you, Bunje, I sat here pondering on an idea on what else you could use for love...how about like? People should use like in place of love if they don't truly love someone or something. Also, if you don't know if you love someone or something, it's a good idea to refrain for saying it anyway. It helps the heart, well of others.
This completely changes my perspective on what I should say I love. But then again, I think, and realize that it's already corrupt. The word almost doesn't matter anymore, its wide spread use has belittled its meaning. I know I will consider what I now say I love.
Love is a concept that is tossed around like a hackisack in the hormonal world of teenagers. I think it has been abused - kicked into a stupor, its lights punched out. Like Monica said, there is only one kind of love: love, that universal word that cannot be defined. There aren't many different kinds of love. While there may be several different subsets (being in love, naturally, not the same feeling as loving someone or something), love is fundamentally universal, encompassing everything we throw under the general category of something that provides us with that warm, pervasive feeling we associate love with.
I know I said I think love is universal, but I'm not going to lie and say there aren't different feelings associated with different subsets of love. I think at the root of all love is passion, and that is the source from which it springs and develops into something we carry with us all the time. Different "types" of love are characterized by the level of passion we feel for that given thing, whether it be a person, object, idea, anything.
Now that I have given my loosely defined interpretation of love, I will attempt to compile a list of what I love. It is impossible to encompass it all. Impossible. Let me just say that before I even begin. Okay, now let me begin. I can undoubtedly say I love my friends, my true friends. This is becoming particularly evident to me as the years wind on. I love my family, although whether I like them at the moment is up for debate depending on my mood and the climate of the house (if it's cold, usually I am not so into them because I hate being cold). I love the heat, I love eating (so much), I love driving, I love driving in cars with other people, I pretty much just love cars in general. I love rap (seriously.) and music in general. I love cats, books, horses, etc. I could go on all day. These are all things that stir up passion in me in some form or another. Like Monica said, there is only one love. It can be felt to different capacities, but it is still love. I don't think the word love is overused. I think the more, the merrier.
Let me also offer a brief explanation of why I am posting so late into the night. One is because I didn't get started until late due to extenuating circumstances (ie: my mom making me Christmas shop, make fudge, etc.). However, these are unimportant, and, as you know, Ms. Bunje, irrelevant, as I could have taken time out of a previous day to do this blog. I have been waiting because I've been contemplating the question for what it is, not wanting to haste into answering because I wasn't sure. However, these last few days have proved to be quite eye-opening as to something else that I love unequivocally, and that is English. Yes, I have been up for the last several nights, later than I usually am, revising essays. I have a genuine and true love for the language, and it is one that will continue once I exit the halls of Oakcrest High. I think that true love of something travels with you wherever you go.
I think love is an unwarranted, uninhibited human anomaly. It is “the only heart disease that is best left to "run on"--the only affection of the heart for which there is no help, and none desired.” As Mark Twain describes it. Love makes you happy and secure with yourself. In a world where you have to walk into buildings with metal detectors surrounding the entrances love is like a realm of happiness. When you think about love it’s like nothing else matters and you forget about how the world has forgotten it’s significance, power, and effect. I think people use the word love and apply it to simple concepts and tangible things to prove how much they really like and enjoy something. Love can be yoked to characteristics of happiness, security, and genuine contentment. There are different types of love like the love you have for your friends, family, or boyfriend. I know that every time I look at my mom I’m not head over heels crazy stupid in love with her. I have a certain level of love respect for my mom because all the things she does for me, completely different to the feelings I get when I’m with my boyfriend.
I was completely thrown off by Erin’s comment. I can agree that there a different types of love, but how can you love your boyfriend, but not be “in love” with him. I feel like that makes no sense. That’s like classifying a type of love under a type of love. I think if my boyfriend ever told me that I would be in tears. My boyfriend and I are complete opposites and we’re always arguing about something, but where I falter he always makes up for and where he falters I make up for so our polar opposite personalities almost complement each other. That makes me feel secure and I love that. That’s why I’m in love with him. I think that would mean that you’re not really in love with him…
The things that I love… well I think I’m going to go for the top 5 things I had on top 10 in class because those are things that genuinely make me happy. I love my family. They’re crazy and we’re all opposites, but it’s like this unspoken thing where I know they love me and I love them. I love my dog because he doesn’t talk back to me! I love him because he seems happy ALL the time so being with my dog his happiness spills over on me. I’m in love with my boyfriend. He makes me feel like know one has ever made me feel before. It’s hard to describe it so I’m just going to say that it’s just about the most amazing feeling anyone could ever feel. I love cuddling. Cuddling is really cute and cuddling with my boyfriend illuminates every insecurity that I might have and ships it away to Timbuktu. Lastly I love the rain. It’s so serene and comforting. It’s like the start of a healing process. When I was younger a friend of mine said that God was flushing the toilet on the world J I was happy to have his heavenly water beating on my head, even if it was from his toilet. Classifying the things I love doesn’t change my perspective on what things I love because I know the things that I love and make me feel secure and I know the things that just make me happy.
I am very sorry that my response is so late. I have a legitement reason for why I'm so late but I need to take resonsibility for my actions. So... here's my blog response.
Love is a very strong and meaningless term at the same time. The over use of the word seems to render it meaningless. However, to those people that don't over use the word 'love,' it has a strong meaning. Personally, I rarely say the word love. I don't go around saying "oh i love that..." or other things like that. I try to save the word love for what it was meant for, i guess. But then the question gets asked, what is love anyway? To me, love is a giant force that attracts someone to an object or another person. But, that theory doesn't always hold true.
Now for the big question; What do I love? I love my family and friends, but I don't really love anything outside of them, yet. But the kind of love I have for friends is different from the love I plan to have in the future with the person I marry. I have a girlfriend but I'm not sure if I'm at the stage where I love her yet. I really like her a lot though. I just don't want to say it too early and not mean it. So when I do say "I love you" to her, I want to really mean it and be totally agree with what I am saying. Since I only mentioned that Family and friends were the only things that I loved, it did not change my perspective of the word that much.
I feel so touched right now for the record I must say that Rebecca is right, for a relationship to work each person must know who they are, and darrell is still finding himself. Im so emotional right now, laugh out loud!
I figure most people are done with this blog, but I am not. I have been pondering this question quite a lot over the past two days. People opened up about their "love" life and it gave me some type of courage with mine...kind of. I say I love this person and it is true, I do love him. Even if we aren't together I still love him. I will always be there for him to talk to or I can always count on him to be there to talk to. He went from being my boyfriend to being my best friend; the one whole understood my crazy logic when it came to simple things. Love is something that is indescribable and something that takes people by storm. For all the times that I was turned down by this person I could not stop being friends with him. Everyone told me to move on and get over it, but I couldn’t. There was something about our differences that made us so similar and still does make us similar. With other relationships, love was so easy to say because we both knew we didn’t mean it; therefore there was limited emotional attachment. This however, is different. It took me a long time to say, “I love you,” but when I did, I meant it. Maybe it is extremely crazy to say that I found love at 16, but at least I know what I have experienced was more then a “like” of someone. In the song that is playing on my iHome, the singer says, “I don’t worry ‘cause everything is gonna be alright, no one no one no one can get in the way of what I’m feeling.” That is so true at this moment that it is ridiculous.
Oh, and my love count is only at 8. Not too bad, eh?
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