what love is vs. what is love

www.toothpastefordinner.com

Do you know how many people have tried to define love?

Webster says it is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. But then he thought...wait. That's not all that Love is. it's also a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. Then he scratched his head and tried again - thirty or so more times - to define it.

Thanks for trying Webster, really. And Shakespeare, you did an absolutely beautiful job of exploring what it is to love ("They do not love that do not show their love")- you even made up a whole slew of new words just to try to get at the heart of the thing, 'cause there aren't words, man. There still just aren't words.

Did you know there are websites that offer directions on how to love? Step by step, make a check on your list.

Did you know that with the Love Calculator, you can calculate the chance of a successful relationship between two people?

Do you love me? check yes or no.

First Love by Norman Rockwell

The thing is, we can't define what love is. It's too personal and just too big for us to be able to stuff down into a comprehensible little package.

We can't define what love is, but we can define what is love.

The biggest one is: God is Love. And just as personal and undefinable, I might add.

Loyalty. Love is not simply loyalty, but loyalty is definitely a part of love.

And wide - open mouthed baby kisses. More, please!

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Also: have you ever noticed how, before you fall in honest-to-goodness love, and someone asks you "have you ever been in love?" it's really tricky to wrap your mind around an exact answer? But then once you've fallen and ARE in honest-to-goodness love, your answer is quick and sure as an arrow?

And so I leave you with words from THE MAN - not on what love is, but on what is love:

...Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or Bends with the remover to remove.

O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

It is the star to every wandering bark,

whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

-- William Shakespeare

four seasons of love by Norman Rockwell