# What is love?



## Hope1964

WATCH: What is love? Edmonton elementary school students answer the question | Globalnews.ca

a Grade five student said. “I guess my best way of explaining what I think love is would be the solar system.

“There are a bunch of planets that can represent people and then gravity holds them together. And gravity is sort of like love; no matter how far apart people are, love can hold them together.”


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## Faiora

Cute, but not actually profound.

And as an aside, gravity is directly dependent on proximity. The further apart objects get, the weaker the pull. So "no matter how far apart" isn't true. And if love worked like gravity it wouldn't be all that strong at all.


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## Fozzy

*What is love?*

Baby don't hurt me...


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## Hope1964

Faiora said:


> Cute, but not actually profound.
> 
> And as an aside, gravity is directly dependent on proximity. The further apart objects get, the weaker the pull. So "no matter how far apart" isn't true. And if love worked like gravity it wouldn't be all that strong at all.


Well aren't you just a fridge full of skunky beer.

Since it's V day on Sunday, thought I's post something about LOVE. Feel free to ignore me :x


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## Faiora

Hope1964 said:


> Well aren't you just a fridge full of skunky beer.
> 
> Since it's V day on Sunday, thought I's post something about LOVE. Feel free to ignore me :x


Hahahahahaha.... not a beer fan, but I wouldn't want a fridge full of skunky beer either. But come on... my four-month-old can't figure out that him purposefully banging his head against my collarbone is the reason his head hurts. Kids are stupid sometimes.

I think the kid who said it best on that clip is the girl who said: "It means that somebody loves you! Very easy! Very, very easy!"

It should be that easy. And that's where us grown-ups are stupid.


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## Mr. Nail

Incredibly difficult question. Last time I answered it, I was smacked down so hard that I actually get twitchy around the subject now. It certainly means a lot of different things in differing levels of intensity to different people. But due to PTSD (post through slap down) I won't be giving my definition.


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## Holland

Love is all sorts of things to me. I love my Footy team, I love my car, I love my kids and I love my partner. The commonality is that they all make me happy 

Child love is incredible, I look at them and smile, I hear them bickering or laughing together and I smile. I can see who they are, beneath the exterior and be amazed at the people they are. I love they way they think, their personalities and their drive.

Romantic love, when it is balanced and healthy, is like air to me I cannot breath without it. When I look back on my past marriage I don't assign love to it nor do I associate it with hate but it was not balanced and healthy.
In my current relationship I can feel the full extent of love, we are balanced and healthy. He is the first person I think of when I wake and the last as I fall asleep. I only want the best for him as he does for me.
Love to me is being able to feel at peace by simply seeing him smile.


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## Hope1964

To quote wikipedia:

The Greek language distinguishes at least four different ways as to how the word love is used. Ancient Greek has four distinct words for love: agápe, éros, philía, and storgē. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words when used outside of their respective contexts. Nonetheless, the senses in which these words were generally used are as follows:

Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē[1]) means "love: esp. brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God."[2] Agape is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one's children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love feast.[3] Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children.[4] This type of love was further explained by Thomas Aquinas as "to will the good of another."[5]
Éros (ἔρως érōs) means "love, mostly of the sexual passion."[6] The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "intimate love." Plato refined his own definition: Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, "without physical attraction." In the Symposium, the most famous ancient work on the subject, Plato has Socrates argue that eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth, the ideal "Form" of youthful beauty that leads us humans to feel erotic desire – thus suggesting that even that sensually based love aspires to the non-corporeal, spiritual plane of existence; that is, finding its truth, just like finding any truth, leads to transcendence.[7] Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth through the means of eros.
Philia (φιλία philía) means "affectionate regard, friendship," usually "between equals."[8] It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle.[9] In his best-known work on ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos denotes a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.
Storge (στοργή storgē) means "love, affection" and "especially of parents and children"[10] It's the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring.[11] Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in "loving" the tyrant.


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## *Deidre*

Love is forgiving, but isn't a doormat. Love is not jealous, but shouldn't be tested. Love is not proud, but isn't afraid to speak its mind. Love should be given freely without expectation, for that is the truest love of all...but, that shouldn't be taken for granted. Love doesn't cheat, love doesn't lie, love doesn't control, and love doesn't want its way. If someone does those things to you, he/she doesn't love you. If you allow someone to do those things to you, you don't love yourself. 

Just my input for du jour.


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## Vinnydee

Love is actually a chemical reaction in your brain that makes you feel good when you are with a person and overlook their flaws. It is nature's way to bind a couple together so that their offspring would have a greater chance of survival back in the early days of mankind. Now women can have kids with even having sex with a man and do not need a man to protect and provide for them. The need for love may be breed out in a thousand years or so. What a shame. Our brains are triggered to release feel good stuff like dopamine and oxytocin. All of a sudden we want to spend all of our time with someone and are interested in everything they say. Unfortunately, that feeling does not stay as intense as it did early on. That is a reason why married people can all of a sudden get annoyed with things their spouses do and even stop loving them. 

Love is an emotion and not a thought. We cannot think ourselves into loving someone. So many people write about loving someone who does not love them back and do not know why. They say that they did all sorts of things for him or her and cannot understand it. Pheromones are partly responsible. We are attracted to them by our sense of smell. The right ones trigger the feel good stuff that makes us fall in love. Sex produces Oxytocin which emotionally binds us to our sex partners. Combined it is a powerful combination but it cannot be triggers by just being nice to someone. Interesting enough, the pheromones that tell us that our lover to be has a strong immune system, is the most potent of them. It was important in nature/evolution to love and form a bond with someone with a good chance of surviving long enough to have a child and raise them. We are all here because our distant ancestors picked good mates and behaved in a way that was optimum to pass along their genes throughout countless generations. Think about it sometime. If one caveman was too tired to have the sex that would ultimately pass along his genes to you, along with those of his mate, you would not even be here. 

We romanticize love and talk about it coming from our heart but it is really all about our brain and its reaction to certain stimuli. Sort of takes the fun out of love if you think of it like that. I am a hopeless romantic despite being aware of why I love my wife. However, I just let my emotions wash over me and try not to think why.  I am a person who is very affected by pheromones. My wife cannot understand why I do not want her to shower before sex. Just holding my wife and smelling her scent, arouses me every time. I proposed to her 3 weeks after meeting her. I was head over heals in love with a woman I just met and 45 years later we are still in love and her scent still arouses me. Me caveman and like it.


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## GusPolinski

Faiora said:


> Cute, but not actually profound.
> 
> And as an aside, gravity is directly dependent on proximity. The further apart objects get, the weaker the pull. So "no matter how far apart" isn't true. And if love worked like gravity it wouldn't be all that strong at all.


If we were able to get close enough, we'd probably hear Mercury chastising the Sun for being controlling.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## jld

Love is . . . "patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."


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## SimplyAmorous

Faiora said:


> Cute, but not actually profound.
> 
> And as an aside, *gravity is directly dependent on proximity. The further apart objects get, the weaker the pull. So "no matter how far apart" isn't true. And if love worked like gravity it wouldn't be all that strong at all*.


Our 17 yr old walked into the room when I was playing that video , he overheard this boys definition, stood there .. listened.. then threw his monkey wrench in the idea saying this was "theoretically incorrect" ...

I read him your reply.. and he says "BANG!"... but still I loved the little boys enthusiasm ...

Deep question.. should take more time to think this one over...

I feel loving & Being loved is the greatest treasure.. it makes our journey worthwhile, it takes our sorrows & halves them..


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