I was asked a question today that left me totally speechless. A friend asked me what my definition of love was and if I believed in true love. I didn't know how to respond. Sure I believe in love, I mean but I think the term is only a placeholder for an emotion we get. The term love is so overused I don't have a proper definition for it. I mean we all tell each other "I love your new haircut" or "I love your outfit" or "I love this [insert noun here]" we love practically everything.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary has 3 definitions for love:
These are the formal definitions for love, but popular culture has overused this term so much that for any of these definitions you can trade in any noun and it still works. Love isn't bounded to people, it's bounded by our imagination. We can love anything we can dream up.
But this leaves a hole in my thoughts. I do believe that two people feel a swirl of emotions when they are together that is incomparable to any other feeling in the world, but it's not love. One of the obvious emotions is lust. When you like someone in a romantic sense there is always that carnal desire. You not only want that person but you want their body too. But then they are deeper emotions too. You feel curiosity, you want to know more about them (their likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc.); you want to know their, for lack of better word, soul. You feel content, when you're with them everything else in the world disappears; when you look into their eyes time stops so you can be together for longer. But it isn't love.
I think there's a great distinction between love and true love. Love is just simply a word you can toss around to any object that you want. But true love I think should have a different name. Hope. True love is when a tornado of hope hits your heart and with it bringing a whirlwind of other emotions. True love is when you place all your hope into one person, knowing that they would never betray you. When every second you spend apart is a second hoping to be back together. You hope that this person is going to be the one to bring out your best qualities. You hope that they will be there for you during your lowest points. I think hope is the most powerful emotion humans can feel. In our darkest moments it's the only thing that keeps us alive. When we have no place left to run, hope protects us from the shadows. Hope is the best thing that we have to offer to someone so why waste it with love?
I'm not saying that love doesn't exist or that I want to revolutionize the world by using hope instead of love. I'm simply stating that I don't know what love is, but if I had to define it I'd use hope because hope accounts for all the emotions that you feel with love. But even though I personally am a victim to the over usage of the term love, I don't really think anything needs to change. It's kind of like with Dante's version of Hell, even though there are different circles for different sins, in the end it is still all Hell. Similarly even though there's different circles of love, it's all still really love. Basically I guess what I'm saying is that when you're romantically involved with someone and you feel that level of love, you're in the ninth circle of Hell opposed to your love for puppies which leaves you on the first circle.
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