What is Love

[Nom De Plume]

What is love and why do we love?

[Bobby]

Haddaway - What Is Love [Official]

[Black Orchid]

I think the meaning and intensity of love changes as we grow older. Sometimes less and sometimes more. I will ponder upon it

[Bobby]

I think the meaning and intensity of love changes as we grow older. Sometimes less and sometimes more. I will ponder upon it

Love is mother nature's way to get you to reproduce.
It also makes a child's survival more likely.

[Super Nova]

Never having to say your sorry.

[Nom De Plume]

The Ancient Greeks had a better understanding than we moderns

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/01 ... s-of-love/

The ancient Greeks were just as sophisticated in the way they talked about love, recognizing six different varieties. They would have been shocked by our crudeness in using a single word both to whisper “l love you” over a candlelit meal and to casually sign an email “lots of love.”

The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn’t always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. In fact, eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude shared by many later spiritual thinkers, such as the Christian writer C.S. Lewis.


The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros. Philia concerned the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them. (Another kind of philia, sometimes called storge, embodied the love between parents and their children.)

This was the Greeks’ idea of playful love, which referred to the affection between children or young lovers. We’ve all had a taste of it in the flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship. But we also live out our ludus when we sit around in a bar bantering and laughing with friends, or when we go out dancing.

The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love. This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.”

Another Greek love was the mature love known as pragma. This was the deep understanding that developed between long-married couples.

The Greek’s sixth variety of love was philautia or self-love. And the clever Greeks realized there were two types. One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where you became self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune. A healthier version enhanced your wider capacity to love.

[Black Orchid]

The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn’t always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. In fact, eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude shared by many later spiritual thinkers, such as the Christian writer C.S. Lewis.

That just equates to lust and certainly has a place in our relationships but without something deeper it will never last. It is just animalistic lust.

The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros. Philia concerned the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them. (Another kind of philia, sometimes called storge, embodied the love between parents and their children.)

Agree to an extent but love between MOST parents and children even transcends the 'brothers in arms' type of all for one and one for all loyalty love. Mind you some parents feel no love.

This was the Greeks’ idea of playful love, which referred to the affection between children or young lovers. We’ve all had a taste of it in the flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship. But we also live out our ludus when we sit around in a bar bantering and laughing with friends, or when we go out dancing.

Young love is awe inspiring and the type of love Bobby talks about re procreation. It either makes or breaks our later loving experiences. It triggers independence and nesting instincts.

The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love. This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.”

Very few people can aspire to selfless love but this is not real love as we know it. It is more an understanding coupled with compassion and empathy.

Another Greek love was the mature love known as pragma. This was the deep understanding that developed between long-married couples.

This type of love comes with being together for a very long time and is more of a deep companionship type of love and understanding of the other person. A comfortable existence so to speak. We are all comfortable with the familiar.

The Greek’s sixth variety of love was philautia or self-love. And the clever Greeks realized there were two types. One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where you became self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune. A healthier version enhanced your wider capacity to love.

Without the love of self we are not equipped to give or receive selfless love. Not the selfish narcissistic type of self love. The self love that comes with acceptance, satisfaction and understanding of one's self and our inherent being.

True unconditional love can also come after the understanding and experience of all of the above. Few people know the true meaning of unconditional love as they not only put conditions on themselves they, in turn, extend those conditions to other people. Unconditional love is very hard to achieve unless you know yourself and are content with yourself and are prepared to translate that in to seeing those you love happy and working at that in order to make yourself happy too. It's always a work in progress and involves never taking those you love for granted.

[Rorschach]

Love is a many splendoured thing?
No way Jose...

It's a chemical imbalance.
It's a form of madness.

I have some love is's like SN's....

Love is…

Love is not sex.
Physical desire is not love.
Lust has many partners but Love has only room for one.
It is demanding giving obsessive committed.

Love is invisible.
You can’t see it coming, you can’t see it go.
It comes unannounced and unexpected.
When it leaves, it always leaves a mark.

Love is a drug.
It is addictive, and overpowering.
Once under its influence, there is no escape.
All consuming, it demands submission.

I also have lots of poems on the subject.

[Rorschach]

What is love?
Howard Jones...

[Black Orchid]