Do you believe in love?

[Lilani]

By that I mean, do you think it is a real, tangible thing that people can experience sincerely or do you feel it is just a temporary though powerful infatuation?

I fall into the latter category. Ive seen too man people who "love" each other hurt their partners in ways that cannot be described. Elderly people who have been married 40 or 50 years will tell you straight up they are glad their spouse died because they were just so sick of being around them ALL THE TIME.

People use love as an excuse to get married or have sex or whatnot and I think to myself whenever I hear that they are just deluding themselves. That it is just a temporary, if intense, crush.

I've also been told I'm wrong and that I won't really know it until I HAVE loved. I don't buy that. I've been in some serious relationships before with some pretty intense feelings but like all things, they just came to an end. I think love is just a fairy tale that doesn't translate to the real world.

What do you think? Am I right? Wrong? Why?

I think it's something that isn't healthy to close yourself off from. To give up on love is basically to give up on life. What's the point?

Given your descriptions I'm guessing you must be under the age of 20. At age 20, you hardly know how it feels to not be a teenager anymore. There's no way you can possibly have enough experience to know what love is. So don't close yourself off from what you don't even know about yet.

I just love leaving this little story in threads like this, as some proof that love does still exist. Sure it can be tricky, and a lot of times misused, but it's something you should never give up on. This is a true story, by the way.


Love is there. It's always there, whether or not you believe in it. The only choice you have in the matter is whether or not you are brave enough to leave your heart open to it.

 

[boosh-boosh]

I believe in love... temporarily. I don't believe in the whole 'one true love for the rest of your life' thing. If you fall in love, i shan't cast doubt upon you, because idk how you're feeling, but i do find it hard to consider love as little more than a infatuation that occurs as a result of a chemical reaction.
then again, i'm aromantic, what the fuck do i know?

 

[Lilani]

I believe in love... temporarily. I don't believe in the whole 'one true love for the rest of your life' thing. If you fall in love, i shan't cast doubt upon you, because idk how you're feeling, but i do find it hard to consider love as little more than a infatuation that occurs as a result of a chemical reaction.
then again, i'm aromantic, what the fuck do i know?

I just posted this above you, but I want to be absolutely sure you see it. Everlasting love exists, and here is your proof.


The only reason it seems so temporary these days is because people don't want to put in the effort to make it work. They get into some argument or disagreement and just bailing out is easier than working things out and dealing with it like an adult.

 

[maryekline]

I totally agree with Fallen Rainbows on this one. Love is all we have. Love is why we're here. And the best part is that you get to learn to love everybody, including (and especially) yourself.

Edit - LOVE the video! It completely captures what love is. It's not the dramatic moments; it's the everyday understanding that the person you are with matters every bit as much as you do.

 

[Shadow flame master]

I do. I'm shockingly naive though. I believe love is around me, just not with me.

What's that word again, oh yeah NINJA'D!

OT: I belive in love too but I don't think it is in my favor to love.

 

[boosh-boosh]

I just posted this above you, but I want to be absolutely sure you see it. Everlasting love exists, and here is your proof.


The only reason it seems so temporary these days is because people don't want to put in the effort to make it work. They get into some argument or disagreement and just bailing out is easier than working things out and dealing with it like an adult.

While it's quite heroic of you to go around showing videos to all us cynics, surely i'm entitled to my opinion? I'm not campaigning to turn this thread into a BAWW-fest because that would be as dull as turning this thread into very large piles of sugary-endorphiny goodness. I don't really want convincing that there is love in the world because, well, romantic love isn't really something that interests me. Just sayin'.

 

[aei_haruko]

love is much to complex a thing to be referred to in this way.

it could be parental love of a child, it could be love of a brother, it could be love of an ideal, it could be love of a partner. I'd say i do believe in love, just because people have bad realationships, doesn't mean all realationships are bad, or that ove doesn't exist. Heck, I've dated my girlfriend for such a long time, and I have to sy even though she lives so far away, and even though I had to keep it a secret for almost 2 years, I'd never give it up.

 

[House_Vet]

In feeling love you feel like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmYlnQv_dg

And like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6Mzvh3XCc&feature=fvst

All at once. I'm there. It's wonderful... and I don't ever want it to end. I've heard it said that Love isn't a feeling, it's a series of actions. Love isn't the feeling - that comes and goes, people get cross or whatever, but carrying on, acting with all the feeling of someone who's just been hit by it - that's love. If you'll do whatever it takes, for however long it takes for somebody, that's love. In the same way, the Christian sense of loving your neighbour isn't a feeling, it's an act.

 

[zehydra]

I've had both crushes, and love.

Since I'm personally aware of the difference, I would have to say that yes, it does exist. Unfortunately, it's difficult to describe, as it's largely a difference in the volatility of emotions, if that makes sense.

 

[Genericjim101]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfdt7Bd_urg listen to this and tell me if you believe in love "Never never gonna give you up". The second "never" makes a huge difference. Yes you got Barry White roll'd

 

[Smurf McSmurfington]

From your definition, the latter.
Basically, "love" is nothing more than an overflow of oxytocin and a few other chemicals in our brains. Our culture's overly romanticised view of "love", however, does not exist in real life. By which I mean "true love" as people call it.
In every shape and form, both real and made up, I find it to be pointless. Completely and utterly pointless.

That's sounds like the classic mantra of the hurt. What did she do?

Why do people always assume that opinions such as these come from personal reasons?
I haven't been hurt in such a way by anyone. From an objective view from the perspective of an individual it has no real point, though in the grand scheme of things it sort of does have a purpose, to keep people breeding and keeping humanity in existance.
Subjectively, I see literally no appeal in that, doing my part to keep humanity alive and wasting my life by living for someone else. I find it uninteresting and therefore unappealing.
And objectively pointless from the perspective of the individual, 'cause the only thing it can do is reduce the quality of life, though one doesn't immediately realise that, 'cause most people lose all objectivity when "love" comes into play.

Also, long-term "love" is attachment not what people actually call love.

 

[DannyJBeckett]

"(Singing) I believe in a thing called love,

(Affecting a voice like I caught my testicles in a vice) Justtakeitfromtherhythmofmyheart!"


Seriously though, yeas, I believe love exists in some form or another.

 

[IkeGreil29]

I've been in love. I know what it's like. I do believe in it. I just think its rare that two people share it or that two people who actually love each other meet and get into a relationship. I also believe in love in the sense of loving your friends.

 

[House_Vet]

Why do people always assume that opinions such as these come from personal reasons?
I haven't been hurt in such a way by anyone. From an objective view it has no real meaning, though it sort of does have a purpose, to keep people breeding and keeping humanity alive.
Subjectively, I see literally no appeal in that, completely and utterly uninteresting and therefore pointless.

Also, long-term "love" is attachment not what people actually call love.

I sincerely hope that you shortly find yourself to be as wrong as it is possible to be. Sure, Oxytocin is a highly effective 'bonding' hormone, but just because Picasso painted Guernica with a brush it doesn't mean he didn't transcend what it means to 'paint a picture'. Just because our thoughts are the summation of millions of action potentials it doesn't make them meaningless. Nothing has any 'meaning' from a truly objective view, but you aren't objective, and neither am I, so frankly, who gives a damn? Not me m'dear.

 

[sheah1]

I believe in love, but not love at first sight. Love is something that has to be earned.

It is something one must cherish and constantly fight for. Like happiness it is something that must be defended.

So yeah. Love at first sight is nothing more than mere infatuation.

You sir, are a gentleman poet. With an excellent moustache.

 

[Kiwilove]

I think I am capable of love. I assume I am not unique. It took me a while to recognize that I was worthy of love, but that is another discussion.

 

[Hip Priest]

'Love' is a mass of clichés, perpetuated by bad pop records and insipid Rom-Coms. That, however, does not mean love does not exist; it's just that it is more complex than the concept we've been sold.

 

[Kryzantine]

There's definitely true love out there. There are some people that are simply worth defending with your life.

I don't know of true love that exists in the form of a marriage. The thing about relationships in our modern age, is that they end. They end in some way or another, and the love mostly dies.

I don't have a traditional girlfriend. I'm not the kind of person that goes around dating people. But I have charges, I have people who I love and who return that love to me, people that aren't tied to me by family. My oldest friend is such an example - the two of us go way back, and she's like the most adorable person I have ever met. We both love each other, just not like a boyfriend / girlfriend way. There's no sex. There's no vigourous making out. I mean, we embrace each other and occasionally kiss, but it's more of an older brother / younger sister kind of thing. My family couldn't care for me and even had to throw me away sometimes, so she fills that role for me, and I think I fill that role for her. Another friend is kind of the same thing, I'm the older brother she never had, but less pronounced, she hasn't been around as long, and there's not as much passion there, but there is genuine care and love there.

I don't know if I'll ever meet somebody who I love in the kind of way most people refer to love. I don't know if I even want that, as long as I'm with one of these family-I-never-had people.

 

[Dags90]

I think you fail to realise that love is only a feeling.

I'm quite sure that it's More Than A Feeling.

 

[Victorique]

What if I love you all?