Okay, sinse no one really wants to touch this one, I'll give it a try. Love is believing that the person or thing or whatever you are with is worth so much more than yourself that you are willing to risk everything, up to an including yourself, to protect her. You mean nothing--she means everything. This is how it is with my daughter. If you met her you wouldn't have to ask why. You'd just know. She is better than all of us internet trollers combined. I would gladly sacrifice myself to keep the world (that would be all you corrupted souls) from harming her.
Intellectually, I guess love is then a value of worth. Anything you value highly, or more specifically value more than yourself, is love.
1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If 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.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5. It is not rude, 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.
I have yet to find a better definition than 1 Corinthians 13 (NIV quoted).
Originally posted by Vladamir no1There is prehaps a utilitarian necessity for clanning up, for creating tribes and groups for the purpose of protection and cooperation, but there is no sense behind love. Many unstable situations, posiibly more unstable than stable, have been created by organization through so-called love.
Everyone seems to have quite a romantic or spiritual jist on love!!
I was talkling more on a biological utilitarian necessity, oh well..........
The only possible biological excuse for the existence of romantic love would be to bring potential mates together. It certainly does not hold them together as a rule--that bond is made by a parents' responsibility to his/her children, and even that isn't enough all the time.
Logically, the whole prearranged, extended-family/tribal thing that used to rule society worked much better.