Meaning of Love

[Vulcan]

Love. What a word which is so overused and thrown around it begins to hurt after a certain amount of time. Love is a state of mind - As is existence. Life is what we interpret, and love is a sector of life which we can interpretate into our cranial cortex. Love is a feeling of compassion and desire towards an object or person - Yes, an object. I know what it feels to love someone, I've experienced it, and it's bittersweet. The bitter section? Rejection, the feeling of someone being 'out of your league'. The sweet part is feeling obligational to do anything knowing that this person is around or amass.

The past decade has seen an explosion of scientific discoveries about the brain, the leading edge of a revolution that promises to change the way we think about ourselves, our relationships, our children, and our society. Science can at last turn its penetrating gaze on humanity's oldest questions. Its revelations stand poised to shatter more than a few modern assumptions about the inner workings of love.

Traditional versions of the mind hold that Passion is a troublesome remnant from humanity's savage past, and the intellectual subjugation of emotion is civilization's triumph. Logical but dubious derivations follow: emotional maturity is synonymous with emotional restraint. Schools can teach children missing emotional skills just as they impart the facts of geometry or history. To feel better, outthink your stubborn and recalcitrant heart. So says convention.

But is love something which can be theorized, or is it a sporadic spraying of affection? I don't believe I'll ever know.

Anyway, what does love mean to you?

[West]

Love is when you find the right person and every day every second you think about that person and when you see that person you are sprung with enjoyment and fun...Love is when you can fight through the tough times and get through it and be the same..Love is when you always think of ways to make that person happier

just my .02

[Perry1977]

There is no such thing as love. It is the natural human reaction to "attachment" to place some type of deeper meaning to something we do not understand. "Love" exists only in one's mind. It is how we describe familiarity, the need for companionship and hormonal urges.

In the end, we all have to die cold, scared, and alone.

[chickennob2]

Just a good part of an article on the subject:

"Think like a brain scientist and you too would be excited by activity in the right ventral tegmental area. This is the part of the brain where dopamine cells project into other areas of the brain, including the posterior dorsal caudate and its tail, both which are central to the brain’s system for reward and motivation. Several parts of the prefrontal cortex that are highly wired in the dopamine pathways were mobilized, while the amygdala, associated with fear, was temporarily mothballed.

Romantic love, Dr Fisher explained in a lecture at the 2004 American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, is not an emotion. Rather, it’s "a motivation system, it’s a drive, it’s part of the reward system of the brain." It’s a need that compels the lover to seek a specific mating partner. Then the brain links this drive to all kinds of specific emotions depending on how the relationship is going. All the while, she went on to say, the prefrontal cortex is assembling data, putting information into patterns, making strategies, and monitoring the progress toward "life’s greatest prize."

Love also hurts. Dr Fisher cited one recent study where 40 percent of people who had been dumped by their partner in the previous eight weeks experienced clinical depression and 12 percent severe depression

Dr Fisher divides love into three categories involving different brain systems: 1) Lust (the craving for sexual gratification), driven by androgens and estrogens; 2) Attraction (or romantic or passionate love, characterized by euphoria when things are going well, terrible mood swings when they’re not, focused attention, obsessive thinking, and intense craving for the individual), driven by high dopamine and norepinephrine levels and low serotonin; and 3) Attachment (the sense of calm, peace, and stability one feels with a long-term partner) driven by the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin."

And as for attachment:

"High levels of oxytocin and vasopressin may interfere with dopamine and norepinephrine pathways, Dr Fisher explained in the same talk, which may explain why attachment grows as mad passionate love fades. The antidote may be doing novel things together to goose the two love neurotransmitters.

Meanwhile, elevated testosterone can suppress oxytocin and vasopressin. There is good evidence, Dr Fisher said, that men with higher testosterone levels tend to marry less often, be more abusive in their marriage, and divorce more regularly. The reverse can also be true. If a man holds a baby, levels of testosterone go down, perhaps in part because of oxytocin and vasopressin going up.

Getting dumped makes you love the person harder, Dr Fisher noted, a term she calls "frustration attraction." Psychologists also refer to "abandonment rage" and "frustration depression," which may paradoxically work to hasten the relationship’s end. Then comes resignation and despair, where the brain’s reward system begins to realize the you are never going to get what you want. Despair may seem counterproductive, but it is in essence "a failure of denial" that allows us to see the world for what it is and sets us on the road to finding a more suitable partner."

[PAINTERDAVE]

hey!

LOVE?

It is a hard question to answer. Kind of like a guy standing in a morgue, looking down at a brain, and saying, "OK, here is the Brain. Now, could you kindly point out where the Mind is?"

I remember asking her this question. "Love? Love..." she replied "love is a feeling and it is not here any more!" I guess that explained the shortstop from our softball team out sitting in her car.

Feelings come and go. Feelings and emotions are like symptoms, not the condition. If I have learned one thing, it is to never confuse sypmtoms with the condition. Over time, those feelings ebb and flow, and to confuse feelings for Love is to be doomed.


Here it is... for me.

I believe that Love is a reflection of energy invested.

Simply put... I believe that Love is what you do.

Love is not what you say, or what you promise, or what you intend.

Love is the direct reflection of the energy you invest.

1)Big, Killer snowstorm. You go shovel your aged parents sidewalks.
2)Other option... simply tell them after it melts that you THOUGHT about it.

Guy loves his folks. The reflection of his love is in what he does. The value of his love is a reflection of the energy he invests.

Love is what you do, not what you say. Love is the reflection of who you are, not who you tell others you want to be.

-------------------------------------------------------

In the most intense and personal relationship - Man and Woman -
Certainly attraction and feelings and mutual desire are a must, and carry the day, and the night and the beginning. But that is not Love. Yet Love grows from the beginning. It is what you do. The reflection of what you do is your Love.
As more time is spent together, feelings deepen, but one comes to see the reflection of their partner's invested energy. Commitments come to be made between a couple, based on the energy invested by both. A person must be able to count on their partner, through the peaks and valleys, as feelings come and go, as life deals the couple a good or bad hand. It is the reflection of energy invested that is the measure of one's love. That is what one bases commitment on, counts on, and truly bonds with.

Often, once the initial honeymoon feelings wear thin, a person sees clearly and understands the reflection of the actual energy invested by the other. Love is what you do, not what you say. One can only talk around truth so long, before ones partner comes to see, "This is the reflection of his/her Love" It is not what you say, it is what you do. Commitments are made, life plans decided, and people cast the die, based upon their understanding of their partners Love. A savvy person understands that Love is a reflection of the energy invested.

How many ABC Movies of the Week have you seen where some lying, cheating creep fools some sweet young woman into marriage, and a living hell, but it is only after the wedding that she sees the true reflection of the energy he actually invests in their relationship?


It takes so much to make a relationship work and last and weather the storms life sends crashing across the horizon. Transitory feelings, which come and go and come back again, are not a good thing to base one's Love upon.

A steady and constant strength, integrity, and willingness to do what it takes to weather the storm, together, is reflective of a true, deep and abiding Love.
When the chips are down, and you feel hopeless, and there, shining like a light in the dark, your partner makes specific, positive, concrete moves to end this chapter, and begin a new one, you draw strength from the energy invested, and together you move down the road. That energy invested, that strength lent to you in a time of need, that is Love, and the reflection of that energy bursts forth into your heart, and all those transitory feelings that come and go, MY GOD! Those feelings blossom like a blooming flower filmed with timelapse photography! You look at this person, and the incredible energy they invest in you, and you begin to shake and quiver with desire, physical desire for certain, but also the desire to do something awesome, to exhibit your intense feelings as a direct investment of energy, an energy reflective of your joy and commitment and desire and willingness to be worthy of the energy invested in yourself!
You do not say a word. You begin a plan in your head, a plan that moves you both down the road. A plan that adds stability as needed, and creativity, as needed, and spontenaety as needed. You look into those beautiful eyes, and the reflection of the energy the person behind those eyes has invested in the relationship again floods the room with light. You make a pledge to yourself then and there to never, ever let this person down. You pledge to never make a promise you can not keep, and yet you pledge to promise yourself often to do whatever it takes to be sure that this person shall be flooded by the bright intensity of the reflection of your own invested energy.

And then, the wild carnal desires consumatted between one another surpass any experience you have had thus far in life!

That is what LOVE is!

[Perry1977]

Bleh, I knew Dave sooner or later would write something excruciating in this thread. =p

[PAINTERDAVE]

Bleh, I knew Dave sooner or later would write something excruciating in this thread. =p

I gave Perry points for his consistancy.

I wish I could give him more than "excruciating" interpretations of my experiences.

Dude! Here is a thread asking about posters understanding of...

THE MEANING OF LOVE

And here I find you throwing upon it a wet blanket!

I hardly believe you mean to belittle any who post here, myself included.

That leaves open the prospect that you are interested and would include yourself for a reason.

Do you want us to engage you and convince you?

I refuse to believe you are only here to disrupt and villify heartfelt responses.

There is more to your presence than you let on.

Open up, dude!

[Zmabe]

There is no such thing as love. It is the natural human reaction to "attachment" to place some type of deeper meaning to something we do not understand. "Love" exists only in one's mind. It is how we describe familiarity, the need for companionship and hormonal urges.

In the end, we all have to die cold, scared, and alone.

agreed perry. i agree. like the song says, "you know its sad but true"

[orangenblue420]

you cant say there is no such thing as love - you guys are just thinking there is no such thing as love between a man and a woman

There are several different ways to love a person

There is love you have for your family - which there are also several different variances of

For instance - my children and my mom, dad, brother and sister all get unconditional love from me - my families strongest bond has always been love - we were very poor growing up and alot of times I resented that but when I got older and met my ex who had alot of money growing up but an absolutely horrific family connection (just one example) - I realized I wouldnt have traded that love for money EVER - still to this day my family may not alwys have the money to help me out of a situation but the emotional support and love they give me usuallyends up helping more

Then there is the love you have for your dear close friends - this love is usually conditional and very present tense but its love none the less


There is also love for animals and inanimate objects - like your car for instance - or in joiseys case his blow up doll (sorry I couldnt resist)

Then there is love you have for the opposite sex (if thats your preference) - this love is unconditional, IMO but can be broken down if the person you love is mean enough to you but westie makes a great point that true love should be able to endure the hard times - it doesnt mean it should endure abusive times but we all have flaws and moments of weakness that true love should be able to overcome - but even if the person you love was so mean that you got to the point you no longer wanted to be with them, you will probably find that in your heart, you still love them

You may fall in love with someone who doesnt love you back and you get hurt, thereby creating the feeling that there is no such thing as love - but thats only an illusion to mask your pain - it doesnt mean there is no such thing as love


Love is an emotion that most normal humans beings have -

Love is real

[chickennob2]

agreed perry. i agree. like the song says, "you know its sad but true"

MEtallica's "Sad but True"? or a different song

[frenchfan]

Love. What a word which is so overused and thrown around it begins to hurt after a certain amount of time. Love is a state of mind - As is existence. Life is what we interpret, and love is a sector of life which we can interpretate into our cranial cortex. Love is a feeling of compassion and desire towards an object or person - Yes, an object. I know what it feels to love someone, I've experienced it, and it's bittersweet. The bitter section? Rejection, the feeling of someone being 'out of your league'. The sweet part is feeling obligational to do anything knowing that this person is around or amass.

The past decade has seen an explosion of scientific discoveries about the brain, the leading edge of a revolution that promises to change the way we think about ourselves, our relationships, our children, and our society. Science can at last turn its penetrating gaze on humanity's oldest questions. Its revelations stand poised to shatter more than a few modern assumptions about the inner workings of love.

Traditional versions of the mind hold that Passion is a troublesome remnant from humanity's savage past, and the intellectual subjugation of emotion is civilization's triumph. Logical but dubious derivations follow: emotional maturity is synonymous with emotional restraint. Schools can teach children missing emotional skills just as they impart the facts of geometry or history. To feel better, outthink your stubborn and recalcitrant heart. So says convention.

But is love something which can be theorized, or is it a sporadic spraying of affection? I don't believe I'll ever know.

Anyway, what does love mean to you?

If only people would know... Love is something you can't explain... You just feel it ... IMO...
For instance, it can be when you're with someone else, and nothing more is existing, but him/her ... Love is passion... And love is often stronger than your mind...

[NJBRONCOSFAN]

If only people would know... Love is something you can't explain... You just feel it ... IMO...
For instance, it can be when you're with someone else, and nothing more is existing, but him/her ... Love is passion... And love is often stronger than your mind...

Ah...yes frenchie, you couldn't have explained my love for Marielle any better!

[LDB]

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Cor 13:4-7).

Love is self-sacrifice. That is what it means to me.

[Zmabe]

MEtallica's "Sad but True"? or a different song

metallicas. i know its not about love, i was just usin the line.

[RealBronco]

The Meaning of Love

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love 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. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When 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 childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor 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.

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

--1 Corinthians 13.

Whether you're religious or not, the thing is that real, true love is defined here. If you love in the way this chapter describes, then you exibit and practice the true meaning of love.