What is Love, really?

[Gruchul]

To quote HK-47: "Definition: Love is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope. Statement: This definition, I am told, is subject to interpretation. Obviously, love is a matter of odds. Not many meatbags could make such a shot, and fewer would derive love from it. Yet for me, love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose, against statistically long odds."

Breaking it down is pointless. Love is what you let it be. And it's worth it.

Edit:

Ask a scientist or biologist this question and you're answered with that it's a series of toxics in your brain, similiar to that when you take drugs. This is true, love is a drug.

He did ask a scientist and that's not what I said

 

[Geekiest]

Love has many faces, and isn't limited to individuals. You sound as if you have been taught that love is what makes a relationship work. What makes a relationship work is actually both people wanting and working together to make it work. It doesn't, in fact, need love. Although that helps. Also, the biggest problem I noticed is this: you gave up your friends.

That is a problem. Love is not something that should require you to abandon all other loves. And as human beings we can't have all our needs met healthily by one person. We love many people through out our live, in different ways and to varying degrees. We love our friends, our families, and our lovers. To cut ourselves off from all of that, or even part of it, as you did, is the cut off a piece of yourself.

"Love" in the romantic, hollywood sense doesn't exist, but best friends who decide to commit to sharing their lives and loves for as long as they both live is an admirable goal, and while not perfect by any means is certainly "worth it" if commited to in full knowledge. It's like entering into half as business partnership and half as romance song. Each partner must sing their part, make themselves think positively, be practical and optimistic.

 

[3AM]

I'm so sorry to hear what happened to you. I've also just be left after more than 10 years together. I've spent every non-work waking minute packing and moving out to make way for his new love. I'm so tired, but at least I've got so much to do I don't have too much time to feel sad though I admit there have been a couple tearful panicky moments.

As for your question - what is love? It's giving yourself, heart and soul, mind and body, to another person. It's feeling a bond with another that is unbreakable. Until it breaks, then it's the depths of despair, fear and depression.

Love is life amplified.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

Eh, that is life.It has its ups and down,lefts and rights,curves and straights and all I can tell ya is it gets better when ya least expect it

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Love is a kind of madness. We suspend logic and facts cause we feel a certain way.


Not suspending logic for love is more harmful to your being than actually doing just that, so it all works out in the end, though it IS a situation of picking the lesser of two evils.

Please don't say "we", when what you mean is "i" or "many people". Love can be perfectly in sync with logical conclusions - but for this, it's necessary to understand some things first. Among those things, is noticing that the popular ideal of "how" love is supposed to be like, is a highly contradictory one.... no wonder that it collides with logic. Thing is: It doesn't have to work that way.

My case was that everything is colored by love, it's beyond your control just like madness is. Thinking you're logical and being logical are two separate things, no crazy or evil person thinks themselves so. What I'm comparing it to is the person's acts if love wasn't in the picture.

Take a simple example, people with kids instantly love them, it doesn't make sense, the kid is just a baby that squeaks and has no personality, either every loving parent is shallow dim-witted idiot or love is just something that doesn't go together with logic.

 

[Nyerion]

A chemical reaction made for the purpose of keeping people together...?

While that's true, every thought and emotion, from boredom to fear, could be described as nothing more than chemical reaccions and electric signals in our bodies. So that's like saying nothing.

But... yeah, it's hard to describe an emotion. I like to think that we ourselves decide what love is. It just depends on what you want it to be.
When I think of love I allways feel kind of nostalgic and sad in a soft and nice way. It doesn't make sense, I know, but who cares?

 

[Project_Omega]

To quote HK-47: "Definition: Love is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope. Statement: This definition, I am told, is subject to interpretation. Obviously, love is a matter of odds. Not many meatbags could make such a shot, and fewer would derive love from it. Yet for me, love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose, against statistically long odds."

Breaking it down is pointless. Love is what you let it be. And it's worth it.

Edit:

Ask a scientist or biologist this question and you're answered with that it's a series of toxics in your brain, similiar to that when you take drugs. This is true, love is a drug.

He did ask a scientist and that's not what I said

Sir, for using my favourite quote (of my favourite character) from KOTOR, you get a cookie.

I would give it to you if I had the power....

 

[Flare Phoenix]

Is love worth it? Maybe...

Is the pain you have to go through to get love worth it? No...

 

[Lambi]

Love. It's what I say is the most wonderful feeling in the world, until it is robbed from you. Then it becomes the worst thing you've ever felt.

Love is knowing you have someone who loves you as much as you do them. Love is being able to tell someone your darkest secrets and be sure that they would never back away from you should you tell them. Love is holding someone close to you, looking into their eyes, smiling softly to them as you two don't have a care in the world, all that matters is the two individuals being together. Love is feeling secure when you would otherwise be panicking, if only just slightly. Love is anticipating the next moment you'll see your loved one, and miss them as soon as they leave. Love is a thing you can not control.

Love is all I really want out of life. To find that special someone I can be with. Maybe I'll find them, maybe not. I will just have to see what the future brings.

 

[thedevilscousin]

I do not consider myself an expert on the matter, but i can tell you that love is what YOU make of it.

In answer to your second question. Yes. Love is always ALWAYS worth it, it's your chance to find some kind of happiness in this cold, empty world.

 

[Fawful]

What is love? At it's most basic form: Hypnotism. Obviously there are times where this might not be the case but for the most part, hypnotism.

Is it worth it? I dunno, I've never been properly hypnotised. I kinda skipped the high school infatuation phase.

 

[Floppertje]

Love is a kind of madness. We suspend logic and facts cause we feel a certain way.


Not suspending logic for love is more harmful to your being than actually doing just that, so it all works out in the end, though it IS a situation of picking the lesser of two evils.

I wouldn't say love is madness, but it can DEFINITELY make you do crazy things.
@ OP: wow. that sucks man. from that story, I'd say she doesn't deserve you.

 

[DamianWorld]

Okay just to preface this, I've had some very bad romantic experiences and some very good ones. The bad was terrible, 2 year relationship which I tried to salavage by turning my friends against each other, hosting a party at my house during which she made out with her best friend, a girl. They went out for 4 year after that. But currently I am in a relationship with a girl who used to be my closest friend and now we've been going out over a year and we love each other. Ive had other relationships which didnt involve love, well not for me. Friends with benefits (always ends with someone falling for the other person) and other stuff. Its never easy but this is my opinion:
Love is always worth it. It can crush you and reshape you but its what makes life worth it. Even if it hurts at least you feel something. Like you said, feeling numb is as bad as death. I hated everything at first but now I look back and see it as a learning curve. It was like I wasnt "finished" yet. I know which mistakes to avoid and also have the experience to move things at a good pace.
And to all the chemical reaction n00bz, well done you understand basic biology however hormone excitation doesnt last after living with someone for 30 years. Love is finding someone you want to live for, do youre best for and never disappoint. This explains both loving sexual relationships and loving family relationships.
If you love her, live for her.

 

[Hosker]

Wikipedia knows all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love

As for your second question, I really don't know; I can't speak from experience. It's really up to you to decide. According to Shakespeare it is...

 

[Beryl77]

Love is just some chemical reactions going on in the brain. It makes you feel great and since it comes when people are around certain persons, they want to be together with these persons. In evolution it was mostly made for the purpose of bringing people together and having children, so that a race won't become extinct. Thanks to the feeling the parents want to protect their children and because of the feeling they also want to stay together with their partner, which makes protecting the children and organising work a lot easier.
It's none of that whole miraculous and mystical think that many people claim it to be.

It's not really worth it nowadays. But it's nearly impossible to fight against that because even if we know what it is, we still can't stop it from happening. When you fall in love, you also fall under that illusion and can't change that by trying to think rationally. Even if that sad thing happened to you, you don't have to worry because there isn't just the one and only person out there. There are a lot of people who suit you.

 

[kjrubberducky]

Love is a decision, a choice made that you will live for someone else instead of yourself. Even if you don't feel "in love" with someone, you can, and you did, choose to still love them. Anything else is just a feeling, and feelings are created by chemical interactions in the brain; feelings never stay the same, always changing and vulnerable to outside influences. But the choosing to love, that is your choice alone. The pain comes when you give your love, but the other person just takes, never giving their love back; but the feeling of getting that kind of love in return makes the pain endurable, and the love worthwhile.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

At the most basic level, like every other emotion, just another chemical reaction in our heads.

 

[Justanothergamer300]

Don't have a solid answer but it's up to you to make your own choice about that. This is something that you think and wonder about as you get older

 

[Togs]

haha "love is a cruel trick played on us to help perpetuate the species"

 

[geldonyetich]

As for romantic love, of all the flash animations on the net, I think There She Is! series captured it best.

http://sambakza.net/works_tsi/tsi_main.html