Love and the Lack of it

What is it about love that everyone, well, loves? I’ve done a lot of research on the topic and it appears that love is not a single feeling and it also is nearly impossible to define since love has so many different meanings. Ranging from the deepest of romantic love to the simplest of platonic love, it can even refer to an attachment to an object. Additionally it is one of human kind’s basic needs. Babies will actually die if they don’t feel loved. Then to compound the problem it is the most common concept expressed in the creative arts, for obvious reasons, and as consequence it totally saturates popular culture and the word itself has become, in my opinion, way over used. Which makes something very interesting happen; in most cases people just toss around the love like its meaningless, then sometimes, saying the word love can have earth shattering importance.

To be honest though, my experience with love, romantic love at least, is rather limited. I have never had the chance to tell someone that I love them, despite probably having genuinely loved a few people. I would count myself as an expert on the topic of unrequited love. Often have I pined for someone who will simply never feel the same way about me that I feel about them. It almost feels like it’s my lot in life. However in the modern era, we have the advantage of internet dating, but this brings with it another kind of possibly even worse pain then your garden variety unrequited love. You see, sometimes you get someone to like you, and like you for who you really are, but as soon as they see you, the attraction has ended. It really strikes home when you realize that you won them over. They liked you, they really did, but your physical appearance killed whatever could have been. That’s what hurts the most. Not to say I’m a bad looking guy, but everyone has their preference. Truth be told that particular case of unrequited love was very much doomed from the get go, but that doesn’t lessen the pain, not at all.

In any case I’m getting off topic. So how does one live with love? It is quite obvious that we can’t live without it, well, we can but it certainly isn’t pleasant. In all my time on this earth, I still don’t have any recommendations. Everyone has their own way of dealing with love. In the case of mutual love, often the best course of action is simply to enjoy it. In the case of one sided love… we all have our own ways of coping. I guess the only thing to say is that, for me at least, love is ridiculously complicated and it seems to be the cause and solution to almost all of life’s problems.

Quote of the post: The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. – Vince Lombardi