ENGL 1001
17 September 2013
What Is Love? Who can really explain love? Almost everyone in the world uses the word love when saying, "I love you." One written definition says, "A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness."('Definition of love'). My definition has similarities to what experts say love should be, but not exact. I believe that one should find the other physically attractive, have a desire to want to always be around the person, not have to try to be perfect together, look deep inside someone and realize who tone truly is, and be able to act like yourself around them without having moments of annoyance between each other. But love can be categorized into romantic, spirtitual and patriotic, although some may define these groupings in different ways. Romantic love can be shown by physical love all the way to loving something just for the beauty of it. If people have love for their friends, neighbors or God, that is a reflection of spiritual love. Also, if a person has love for their country doing charities or fighting in war, that is a form of having patriotism. They all define love, just different types. Romantic love is the most difficult to understand for society because people believe that it will just happen and it can't be achieved. No one actually understands that one can promote romantic love such as a husband would do for his wife. In part A of "Philosophy of Love: An Overview", Moseley describes that, " Eros is used to refer to that part of love constituting a passionate, intense desire for something; it is often referred to as a sexual desire. . .", showing that it is possible to help boost your feelings for someone based off their actions rather than it just happening. Actually knowing and understanding the meaning of romantic love will allow us to love the real way and not the way everyone says it goes. A good example is in fairy tales, they say "happily ever after," but they never show that, the families are always dysfunctional and not very happy. We grow up thinking that "happily ever after" will just happen and we will not have to work to maintain the love, when in reality it should be the opposite. Learn the defintion of romantic love and customize it your own way, not a "rehearsed, planned" love. In passage C, Moseley states, "Agape refers to the paternal love of God for man and man for God but is extended to include a brotherly love for all humanity.", in other words it is a form of spiritual love. Spiritual love is unlike any other, everyone has it and it is always there; it is in your heart, just does not show. What reveals this love the most is being around one another and seeing the assets to your life, how much you praise something (as in God), and something a person would have for friends, all with an open mind. We have to see and experience what is happening for that love to come