Love is ...

[Mock Turtle]

Many things, and different for all its meanings.
A purely human emotion - perhaps enabling the separation of humans from other life?
Common to many feelings - attraction to highest ideals?
Explainable by chemical processes in the brain (mostly).
Not the basis for an ideology - perhaps as in, God is love.
Troublesome when it forces a dichotomy - love is good, whatever is bad.
Others?

So what might be the common features in all the different meanings, what makes one unique and different from other meanings of the word, and perhaps, how useful are some really, perhaps some being purely beneficial to humans?

 

[ChristineM]

Love is... Never having to say you are sorry

Love is... An NZ comic strip

Love is... A strong emotional feeling of respect for another being

 

[Mock Turtle]

I left out the obvious one (for others to fill in), the intense mental and emotional connection to another that often doesn't apply to most others, and which has eluded me but I have felt what it might be like. Having a love-at-first-sight moment I can recognise what many will feel towards their loved one and even if this doesn't endure then another form of love might continue. The nearest I have felt, apart from the LAFS, is towards my close friends, and of course towards my parents - but mostly towards my mother. And I was wondering if any felt some commonality between the various feelings of love we have (however defined), and why this might be, apart from religious explanations since I know many will claim such. One thing I have missed perhaps is the love that many feel towards art, and I was wondering how others see this with regards any other loves.

 

[atanu]

Love is the experience of not being separate.