I will continue then, and examine beyond people together, types of love that I have heard of. What is love and how is it realized in the world. Is love an action> An emotion? A state of being? Is love a combination of other emotions? Can it be influenced? If unconditional love is the best kind of love, does that negate other types of love?
One definition of love that often comes to mind is that love is the actions you do for another person. When you make dinner for your significant other at the end of a long day. When you give a slug watch to your friend who adores slugs. Or even acts of love that are for others such as a working in a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter.
Three Ancient Greek meanings of love that I know of are agape, eros and philia. Agape generally refers to a "pure," ideal type of love. Eros is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. Philia is a dispassionate virtuous love, and motivated by practical reasons; one or both of the parties benefit from the relationship. Agape love is ideal, eros love is when you're young and hormones rage, and philia love is once you have a family that you are responsible for.
"In English, love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from pleasure ("I loved that meal") to interpersonal attraction ("I love my partner"). "Love" may refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, to the sexual love of eros, to the emotional closeness of familial love, or the platonic love that defines friendship, to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states." ~Wikipedia
I am also often reminded of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6 "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (I think this one is my personal favorite.)
At the root, love must be selfless. What is the meaning of the word selfless? Selfless is having little or no concern for oneself and in turn all of your concern is for another. Related to love must be sacrifice. The things we give up for the love of another.
Perhaps I missed a viewpoint on love--what is your take on LOVE?
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