WHAT IS LOVE 
Love is the yearning entirely for a person to always be near to you. Love is the willingness to sacrifice any and everything for a person. Love is the constant pondering and questioning of a person. Love is the desire for the best for a person. Love is forgiveness. Love is senseless. Love is when your mind plays tricks on you and creates a disillusioned picture in your mind of an image never to be tasted, smelt, heard or seen. Love is meaningless......pointless......right?
Now, I hear the groans and moans that you might be making on the other side of the monitor screen. I promise I will not be running my mouth on forever discussing the person I am in love with.
I am in love with a black man. I thought his love for me was equivalent to mine. I guess this is an unrealistic hope to want to be loved the same way YOU love a person. My experience made me think about whether or not the idea and concept that I have about love is distorted and naive. I began to ask individuals about their concept of love in hopes of me one day understanding what love is and what its purpose may be.
"Love is that force which is free from the tyrant of time. It is that which cannot be destroyed. It is eternal and yet it exists in so few places." (Thank you Lalita Ramnarine)This concept of love is one often thought to be correct by a lot of people...most of the human population. This quote describes love as something that is ever-lasting. It also suggests that it cannot be destroyed by man (man, woman or child). In other words, a human being has the capacity to allow themselves to love and be loved. Whether this opinion is right or not is not within my capacity to decide. I too once thought that this is what love is. But, I disagree with the idea that no man (man, woman, or child) can destroy love. I believe that it is man who destroys and kills love. I believe that in every part of life there is love. Every single aspect of life is extravagant, brilliant and lovely in its own, maybe indescribable way. But, the things that are not loved and respected in life are the things created by man's insecurities, selfishness and stupidity. This quote also suggests that love is never based on time. I disagree with this quote to some degree. When love first begins, it is crisp, new and fascinating. But, as love ages and matures along with the individuals, it sometimes blooms and multiplies into an ever-lasting force that will remain in the hearts and minds of those two individuals forever. On the other hand, sometimes love appears as though it is headed in a pleasurable and significant direction, but in fact it never does. The individuals involved in the romance grow apart and their love remains but the people who were in love to begin with aren't the same people. This is the most painful and agonizing type of love.
"Love is unconditional." (Thank You Sheena Knight) This quote suggests that love is forever. Is it? Again, this topic could be debated. My mother has always told me that nothing lasts forever; neither beauty, money, health or even LOVE. As painful it may be to accept this theory, it is reality. Love DOESN'T last forever. The caring, passion and emotion (abstract feelings) that you feel towards an individual may last forever. When I say that those feelings listed are abstract, I mean that they are unable to be touched, heard, seen or tasted. In other words, they are not a part of reality. They are concepts and ideas created by man's own perceptions of things that his mind presumes to be right and just. But, how that PERSON truly makes you feel may one day revolt you and cause you to ultimately hate them. I believe this happens because individuals are fixated with the abstract feelings and perceptions that they have created in their brain. I reinforce the possibility that love is simply your mind playing tricks on you by creating false perceptions, ideas, and goals in your head.
"Love hurts. Love turns you into someone unlike yourself." (Thank You Natalie M. Carty) I wonder if this quote tells the realistic definition of love. Love causes you to get fully entranced and indulged in a person . So, when you allow yourself to love you are becoming vulnerable and are losing a piece of yourself every single day you are with that person if you are not careful. To simply say that "Love hurts" is an understatement. Sometimes I feel that love cannot feel good unless you work out and endure the times and parts of love that HURT. It look as if LOVE and PAIN correspond with each. In other words, one cannot exist without the other. I believe that this may be so because of the difficulty of joining two different human beings with their own insights. impressions, philosophies and goals to create this single union of love that is supposed to last forever. Let’s be real ! This union is difficult. Think of it in this perspective: some music groups don’t even stay together for more that 2 songs. It is easy to fall in love but it is extremely difficult to remain in love and keep the same spark of romance, and passion alive.
"All the stars and sparkles in the sky can not count the amount of ways God can tell you he loves you!" (Thank You Kikeloma O. Olowofela) The only type of love that I believe will last forever is the one delivered from God himself. I hope anyone who is reading this essay is not ofended by my views, but hey are MY views. I believe in a supreme being and I support the position that God is the deliverer of love, happiness and guidance. He is our father and he will do anything in his power to provide his children with the best. Someone once told me that "God is Love". Love is a reincarnation of God and his love for us. We all know that human beings are not perfect. So, it may be in God’s plan that we find love and keep love for our entire life and that is why he sends us family, friends and soul mates. Although it may be in God’s "blueprint" to give us love for a lifetime, I support the fact that humans may disrupt this process because of their imperfections and their unwillingness to follow God. I beleive that man’s insecurities, lusts, passions, opinions, feelings, machismo attitudes, feministic attitudes, immaturity, irresponsibility, fears, pains, and simply their ignorance causes love to eventually dwindle away and die out.
The question "What is Love?" has not been answered. I don't know if it ever will be accurately described and defined. The definition of love truly depends upon the person who is describing it. In this essay, I have taken the perception of love that my fellow classmates have about love and analyzed them. I have agreed with some of their points, and I have also disagreed with some. But, this essay is again my interpretation and personal feelings about love.
Love is an extremely complex word. IT has no REAL meaning to it, but it is a REAL feeling. Love represents a cluster of things. When you love someone you trust them, care about them, value them, passion after them, want to provide for them, yearn for them and many any other things. The list of what loving someone means, is a list that can go on FOREVER.
The Author’s Note:
This essay’s purpose was......I don't know it's purpose. I felt like writing it and I felt and empathized with every issue discussed in those piece. I know what love is like. It is truly OVER-marketed. There is just no other greater feeling than to hear someone profess their love to you. But, I don’t want you to get suffocated and confused by society’s image of love, relationships and the roles a man and a woman should play in a relationship. Keep your head up and stay strong. Read my essay, try to empathize with my points and make your OWN conclusions. You may agree with mine but if you don‘t, so what! E-mail me and let me know your views.
Philonda :)
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