What is Love? Does it exist?

[Kevlar Eater]

The idealist in me says, "Love is handing the one you love a gun and hoping (s)he doesn't shoot."

Both the cynic and pessimist in me say, "Love is a joke without a punchline."

Science says, "Love is basically pheromones and adrenaline."

I say, "Silly rabbit, love is for idealists and kids."

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Love is complicated. We've all been there, and everyone finds meaning eventually.

Yes, I've been there - and it almost destroyed me. I have since vowed never to bow to the tyranny of that horrific, despicable feeling ever again.

You sound like one of the goth kids from South Park.

I imagine so. However, I'm more acerbic about it than the traditional moping. I want revenge. I want everybody else to feel that horrifying bitterness and anger which I've felt - maybe then they'll finally shut the hell up about love and how great it's supposed to be.

It was like simultaneously feeling the weakest and most powerful i'd ever been. You feel like you could take on the entire world, and for her you would, but it's accompanied by a crushing doubt that there is no way you could ever be good enough for her.

I've felt something akin to that - except there was no power involved, only weakness. It's the closest I've ever felt to real love - and if I never feel that feeble again, I will be thankful to the end of my days.

Someone needs a hug!

Spoiler

 

[ReligiousNutEruption]

I imagine so. However, I'm more acerbic about it than the traditional moping. I want revenge. I want everybody else to feel that horrifying bitterness and anger which I've felt - maybe then they'll finally shut the hell up about love and how great it's supposed to be.

Good luck with that, you wanna go to a Slipknot concert together?

Why waste precious time on a concert that isn't playing proper music?

Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought that since you're so dark and edgy you would be into that kind of thing.

The properly dark and edgy reject music altogether. It's simply a paean to our baser instincts.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

 

[ace_the_poet]

It's perplexing because I see so many young couples that seem to be in love. In fact, many people marry, and decide "I want to spend my life with this person". What would drive them to do so? Don't people act out of their own best interest? It's entirely possible that you enjoy that person's company at the moment, but the time will come when you have to sacrifice something for them, or they become an inconvenience to you, and you will have to decide to suffer the burden or leave. When the burdens become too cumbersome and you are no longer happy, you abandon them. It's only logical.

Well, I'm married. What drove me to do it? I admire the person I married - I believe she is an exquisite person who deserves a man who treats her well. I decided that the only way I could guarantee this was if I married her and treated her as well as I possibly could for my entire life. It's against my human nature to do this if I have no personal gain ... and I can't say that there aren't personal gains involved, don't get me wrong. But when I married her, I made the very real decision and vowed to 'love' her, that is do selfless things to benefit her, even when she in no way deserved it. I realize that one day I might not feel the emotions often associated with love for her. But at that point, I'm going to keep 'loving' her, because that's what I committed to do and I'm a man of my word. In conclusion, what drove me to marry her? I wanted her to be loved for her entire life, and I wanted to commit to do that. Not for my gain. For hers. It's definitely counter-society right now, which generally encourages each of us to make decisions that benefit, at the very least, ourselves. The decision I've made to 'love' her is one that I'll keep even when I see no benefit for myself in doing so.

 

[LittleChone]

It exists.

You either have to find it, or hope like hell it finds you.
How do I know this? Well, I've been in love. I just hope its something everyone can find.

 

[BrownGaijin]

Did your parents throw you out into a gutter after you were born?

No?

Okay then.

(with apologies to all those who did have that happen)

 

[rutger5000]

You are too pragmatic about this. Don't try to reason with all of your emotions and all emotional phenomena. If you do that you can't stop and have to conclude that your whole thought process is nothing more then a bunch of electrical signals flying across cells in your head due to a potential difference caused by a chemical inequality. And where does that leaves us at the whole, what's the point of everything?

 

[rutger5000]

I'm going to breakup with my girlfriend because she's in love with me and loves me romantically, while I don't feel either of those feelings. I'd say love exist, if it didn't I would just continue the thing we've got going.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

From my position (being in a relationship of a bit over a month):

Yeah, love exists. It's just not what I thought it would feel like. It's...pretty hard to describe, actually.

I thought I'd be obsessed with the girl, and all we'd ever do is make googoo eyes. But we don't. We do the same things we did as friends, talk about the same stuff, and play the same games. And then, often, we just look at each other and have a "moment" and/or cuddle.

I can only describe it as one step beyond being "a friend who could be your brother/sister". (I have 4 friends who are so close I could almost consider them family, so having someone catapult beyond even that in only about 2 months...it's pretty powerful).


Honestly, as cheesy as the saying is, you'll only understand when you feel it.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[Krythe]

I'm curious what other people think. Is there such a thing as true love?

(You're text-walling a gaming website to ask this.)
Not for you, dude.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Love is what a person decides it to be. If you think it's just over-glorified lust and it causes more pain than good, that's okay. If you think it's an indescribable sensation that completes you, that's okay too.

When you know that you're in love is another question altogether, but the same rules should apply as above.

Now from my own perspective: I know I love a girl if I'm not territorial about her and when living with her for the rest of my life would be a good thing. I've never been able to tell a girl that I love her, though. Not because I haven't felt it, but because I don't know if it'll last. Tell her I love her on Monday, but will it last till Friday? Tuesday? The next 30 minutes? I also think that telling a girl that I love them would be too possessive over her, you know?

 

[wagglelance]

love is just a feeling, created by chemicals that the body produces to give you the feeling that we call love.

 

[Sneeze]

some people describe love as being with someone you can always talk to.
i say its being with someone you dont need to say anything to.

you know what i'm talking about.

Hear hear, I'll drink to that.


Cheers.

 

[Pyrokinesis]

Whata thread, Please dont let the OPs suspension prevent um for reading these. He(guessing here, appoligies if im wrong) sounds fairly unhappy with experince with love. I cant blame um, love isnt easy, its tricky, its mean, its rough, and it can be brutal. But it is not without its great rewards for those who struggle for it.

Heres my vid on love. Feel free to skip the credit scenes just the two monologues is what i like the most.

First one is at the start, second one starts at 2:09

Dont let the hardship of life throw you off. Good luck

 

[Faladorian]

You loved her. She simply didn't love you, or at least not enough to do anything to stay with you. I know it sucks, but it happens.

Shut up! You don't know anything. Just... Don't act like you know me, or anything about me! Got it?

Aaaaaand I'm out.

Emo crying is where I draw the line in any argument. This is obviously an attention grab for sympathy.

You're a presumptuous prick, I certainly won't miss you.

You made discussing love, and because you've had a shit exeperience with love, you're confused as to what love is. I get that.

If you thought you were in love with this girl, then you probably were. She obviously wasn't in as much love as you. I know that if I loved someone, I'd do anything to be with them. She didn't, ergo, she didn't love that much.

You act like the OP doesn't have a valid question.

Well, if we're all riding the psychoanalysis train: You think your relationships are more special and meaningful than others' for the sole reason that you are experiencing them and others aren't. You'd be wrong.

"What is love? Does it exist?" is, again, a valid question (if you're willing to get off of your emotional high-horse).

To answer the OP's question: The concept of love exists in modern society, but it's just an emotion. And what are emotions? Chemicals. No, they're not magical, they're chemical ratios.

 

[PhiMuLady]

I believe that it does, what I doubt is that human beings are capable of it.

You have take the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Spleenboy]

I'm still young so maybe down the line I'll get it, but right now I have no fucking clue why people are such idiots when they are in love. I mean, why get jealous because your SO spoke to someone else? Makes no sense! Same with cheating. "Oh s/he cheated on me with three other people, but I'm sure s/he won't do it again!" Idiots!

 

[TheEdgeofDespair]

*snip*

In my own humble opinion, love does indeed exist in the scheme of hierarchical thinking. While love is ostensibly a product of the electrochemical processes of the human mind, it takes on a new meaning when considered from relative perspective of a human being. Love, like all other concepts, is relative; it is malleable to the perspective of the individual. Some may define love as an undying affection and devotion to an individual regardless of circumstance; some may define it as the willingness of an individual to compromise the primal instinct of self-preservation in the interest of protecting another; and others may believe it to be something entirely different. I, for one, believe love to be a process of sorts. In its infancy, love is the unspoken bond between two acquainted individuals that transcends ordinary friendship as well as superficial lust; love is felt in the unadulterated joy experienced in meeting eyes, the mutual emotional and moral reliance that blossoms from what was once believed to be mere friendship, and the merging of two souls' past, present, and future lives. As love matures, it becomes an undying connection that bonds two people and ultimately compels them to look beyond their own needs in the interest of the happiness of the other. However, if one's intent is to reduce any and all human concepts of emotional and cognizant perception to the most basic level, then 'love' as we call it cannot be 'illogical', as the course of any and all events, whether 'intelligently' guided by a human mind or not, is rooted in the profound arithmetical logic of the universe. It is only the limited scope of mankind that restrains it from perceiving the irrefutable logic of nature and consequently that of mankind.

Nevertheless, it is useless to attempt to persuade an individual who has already rendered his mind impermeable to the opinion of others. It is quite apparent in your refuting of the advice and insight of other posters in this topic that you have already defined what love means to you. If your intention was to release the burden of a lost love in engaging the sympathies of this forum, then I would suggest that you do so in telling us your story directly rather than in expressing resentment towards those who are only trying to help. Anger is not a viable substitute to fill the void that love once filled.

 

[Freeze_L]

Love is the conscience choice to put another before yourself. Pepole screw up the idea of love, love is not easy or fun or supposed to be happy all the time. Love is the act of giving yourself to another person, to varying degrees friendship to couples. If you love someone you give a piece of yourself to them and they give themselves to you. Love is staying with someone even when you cant stand them because you know that you still gave yourself to them and they to you. Love is mutual between 2 pepole. Really you can love someone as much as possible but if they do not love you back then it is not really Love, just obsession.

Really love is the willingness to sacrifice everything for the other person because you care for them. When you say "I Love You" what you should be saying is i would go through anything for you even when we go through bad times i will always stand beside you.

Damn that sounds a bit more romantic then i was aiming for. What i am trying to say is that love is not just chemicals but a choice, a choice you make everyday to say "I will stand by you." Chemicals are cheap and worthless, Lust is simple using, but love, love is an act a choice to put someone else before yourself.