On the nature of love

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik H:
Don't you get it? You feel love! You cannot define it. As for respect and trust, there is no connection, though a loss of these may cause love to fade away (as I suggested earlier). Trying to define love is like trying to define why Bach was the Genius and Teleman the Journey-man. One can recognise a phenomenon, which is not really defined or definable.

I agree.

quote:

As for love and being in love, well being in love is IMO the Western (Hollywood fantasy) kitsch thing which is actaully lust and falls at the first hurdle - hence the disasterous familly break-downs so common in the decadent West...

Only if you choose to define it that way - that's certainly not what I mean by being in love. As an aside, I think it's unfair to compare West and East in the way that you implicitly do. In the more traditional sectors of Eastern societies there is more economic and cultural pressure on incompatible couples to stay together - or to marry in the first place - so lower rates of apparent family breakdown in such societies can easily conceal greater misery.

quote:

Love is physical, painful and all encompassing. No one who has not been there would understand that...

Well, it was for me because I never had the nerve to tell the person I was in love with how I felt about her. But surely it's not compulsory???

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:
I happen to think that the feeling of love I have for a life partner differs from the feeling of love I feel for my friends only by the degree of its intensity and the perception of its depth. I have observed this for many years and am convinced of it

I was wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik H:
Love is physical, painful and all encompassing. No one who has not been there would understand that...

Fredrik

If it really exists it's probably best avoided then!

EW