Love: Its one of those things...
Love. People in it say it cannot be explained. People who have never experienced it say it doesn't exist. Philosophers and writers analyze it. What is it with this human emotion that so captivates the only species that can feel it?
My answer:
It cannot be explained and should be left alone!
I know that others beg to differ. Plato's Symposium is a philosophical and highly acclaimed examination of this topic. Lewis' The Four Loves attempts to boil love down to something that anyone and everyone can understand. I have suffered through both of these works this semester, and I can authoritatively say that both miss their mark. Having experienced love is required for an accurate dissertation, but having been in love adds a certain taint or bias to the writing, and thus, both writers lose something in the transition of ideas between writer and reader.
Besides, Love is one of those things that is different for everyone person and in every locale. Love is art at arts finest form. Since art is not anything like science, you cannot effectively classify, analyze, and break it down according to the scientific method, nor can you quantitatively categorize it.
SO don't even try. It’s an act as cowardly, stupid, and blind as giving me clothes or stationary for Christmas and using a gift bag!
posted by The Village Idiot at 1/17/2005 01:34:00 PM
3 Squibs:
I don't know. You say "Love is one of those things that is different for everyone person and in every locale," and to an extent that's true. But I think Lewis is right when he says that any worthwhile love we experience on Earth is a reflection of the Love that created us in the first place. If that's true, then every worthwhile love will have to point to that Love, which would, I think, require certain similarities. At any rate, I give you this.
Interestin answer and I do agree, Love is simply something that you know it's there when it is, but I think that it is generally the same feeling for everyone, except when the love is one-sided or it is unseen, then people have variations. Peace and Love
Jens
Ok, Jon. You say: "Lewis is right when he says that any worthwhile love we experience on Earth is a reflection of the Love that created us in the first place." I would also agree. Since man is created in the image and likeness of God, he would be able to experience love, since love is a very essential part of his creator. And I'd agree that any love man experiences is ordered to the divine -that love that created him- but is it really necessary to write a blundering book on the topic that touches more on what love is NOT and what blunders human love makes? I think the best thing to do would be to say:
"Man experiences love because he was created out of love. There are many types of love, each type found between certain (Or different) persons. Yet any love that is true (thus not perverted or corrupted) united man and god in a way that only creator and created can be united."
and not waste time on The Four Loves, The Symposium, or modern philosphical studdies. But I can at times be rather blunt and stubborn in my ways and views. Nevertheless, I did not enjoy Lewis's book beyond his ideas for Affection and friendship much more than I enjoyed Biblical Traditions last semester.
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