What is love?

[インフェルノの津波]

Someone please explain this concept to me.

For some reason, "love" escapes me. I mean, I like people, but love...?

I don't know, can't seem to feel it...any explanations?

 

[EpsilonE]

what i want to know is why right when my thread on this died, 30 other people over the course of 2 months jumped on making it

 

[Charizard★]

Here are some definitions:

"A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person."

"strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties"

To me its an emotion that attracts you to another person.

 

[EmeraldSerenade]

"Love can make you do anything and sacrifice for what will be better in the end. Love is intense,and passionate. Everything seems brighter, happier and more wonderful when you're in love. If you find it, don't let it go."

Of course, that's just my opinion about Love.

 

[poopnoodle]

i used to not believe in love in the sense of an intimate, long-lasting partnership with another human being. i'd always figured it was a man-made concept that got us through the drone of life, until i actually fell in love. it's passion, attraction, motivation, happiness, devotion, all those mushy things bundled up together that cause you to want to give the world to your partner and be with them at every waking moment (and every sleeping moment) and you see in your partner what no one else sees. as someone rather skeptical, it's difficult for me to say this without feeling a little silly, but there is something mystical about love. it's the rarest and most beautiful feeling to encounter, so like EmeraldSerenade advised, don't let it go if you find it.

 

[インフェルノの津波]

Well I'm asking because my girlfriend loves me, so I'm trying to understand what it exactly is.

 

[Izanagi]

One definition is when you are truly willing to go without so that the other may have, you are in love. Love is fragile though, as even, and one may not agree, but even God is capable of breaking his love.

 

[Guillermo]

Whatever you make it out to be, imo. It shouldn't really have a term, since everyone has a different concept of what love actually is and what its capable of.

 

[Teara]

Buying his underwear because he clothing retarded.

 

[Eliminator Jr.]

This is what somebody said in the old thread on this topic.

Real love is bittersweet: The joy of being around them and the lack when they're gone.
Hopeless to understand and simple to feel. There is nothing more beautiful.

It sums up what I feel exactly.

 

[twocows]

It's not something that can be explained. You have to figure out what it means on your own, even if you find that it doesn't mean anything at all.

Also, it's a song by Haddaway.

 

[doesn't matter]

This song should answer all your questions.

 

[TDCass]

Something that I don't understand, and everytime I find, gets ripped away by the one who gave it.

 

[Jolene]

Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.

 

[Sorano]

You won't know what love is until you find it, or experience it yourself. Everyone has their own perceptions of what love is and what it feels like. It isn't accurate to ask someone else what love is, because when and if you begin to love someone, you may feel totally different about it than somebody else does.

 

[Poffin™]

In my personal opinion, No one can tell you what love is, and no one ever should. If you go out expecting this and that about love , you may be dissapointed. Love can be an individual thing, and the exact definition can change per person/couple.

^ Basically what Sorano said.

Still, Can't say i know what love is yet. Hopefully i'll find out and not become a 50 year old un-married man who stays in all day :D

 

[Percy Thrillington]

Love is extremely irritating and frustrating, regardless of whatever else it is.

 

[Richard Lynch]

It's not something that can be explained. You have to figure out what it means on your own, even if you find that it doesn't mean anything at all.

Untrue! Love can be explained quite simply through biochemistry.

That is, it derives from the hypothalamus, in the brain (lower region, I think) which interacts quite heavily with the nervous system (which explains some symptoms of "love", such as heavy breathing and sweating). The hypothalamus communicates with the pituitary gland of your brain, which releases a slew of chemicals (hormones) into your body which in turn create a kind of a high (such as the release of serotonin, the body's natural "feel good" chemical). In other words, it's a perfectly natural drug.

This follows through with the fact that when your "heart is broken", as they say, this release of chemicals is halted and you go through a kind of withdrawal, among other physiological symptoms that probably derive from the psychology of the situation (which is, of course, related directly to the psychology of the person!).

As to what causes this, we don't really know. Most researchers believe it derives singularly from the sex drive, but others think it has higher meaning than being purely instinctual. I'm inclined to believe in the first option (since the pituitary gland doesn't release the chemicals itself, but instead interacts with the sex organs, and they cause the release of the chemicals), but there's lots of other details that are quite beyond me as a scientist.

I will say one thing, though (and I point this out every chance I get), but chocolate does many of the same things to your biochemistry as "love". ;)

 

[♥Sweetheart™]

I find it hard to explain, so I'm not going to explain.
It's very overused and underused.

 

[Throat]

I doubt someone will bother to read "my" answer, but:

Love is a fire that burns unseen,
a wound that aches yet isn't felt,
an always discontent contentment,
a pain that rages without hurting,

a longing for nothing but to long,
a loneliness in the midst of people,
a never feeling pleased when pleased,
a passion that gains when lost in thought.

It's being enslaved of your own free will;
it's counting your defeat a victory;
it's staying loyal to your killer.

But if it's so self-contradictory,
how can Love, when Love chooses,
bring human hearts into sympathy?