A Lovely Thought

What is love?

This is a fairly common question. But let me just say right now that there is no answer for you here, because I frankly have no idea. Well, actually that is a lie. I have several ideas, I just don't know if any of them are correct.

Love can manifest itself in many ways: love for a profession, love for an animal, love for a spouse, love for God, pretty much whatever takes your fancy really.

And love differs in many ways: we have platonic love, romantic love, Eros (sexual) love, parental love, friendship, guardianship, etc, etc.

A rather prominent argument is that love does not exist: it is a creation of the mind. Literally. Essentially, love is hormones flooding your brain. And this is completely true.

However, the real truth lies in the fact that we are human, and possess my favorite evolutionary trait: higher thought. Yes, we as a species have the ability to perceive our existence in a different manner to our animal counterparts. We follow logic, and defy it. We revert to our base instincts, yet try desperately to retain our humanity. Love is purely hormonal, yes. But it is our ability to perceive it otherwise that makes it a reality.

Look, two overriding base instincts guide almost every action: the need to survive, and the need to reproduce, both of which can be connected to or considered a form of love (love of life, love of self, Eros love, etc). But our higher thought allows us to deny these basic and rather unrefined types of love, forming the greatest lie of all: Romantic love. We override our need to survive and procreate by throwing ourselves in harm's way, risking life and limb, prioritizing, putting the consideration of the significant other before ourselves. Romantic love makes no logical sense, yet guides most of humanity, often on unbelievably stupid quests.

Love has destroyed lives and civilizations, yet is the inescapable proof that we are different from animals, and capable of greatness. Love is the opiate.