What is Love?

We know what it is, though we may not know exactly where it starts and where, if at all, it ends. There have been countless books, movies with Matthew McConaughey, poems, and Hallmark cards that try to elicit the feeling or tell us what exactly love is. But what is it to you (using my NY accent here)? Love it or not, I’m trying to identify my thoughts on the matter, so that I can give it a fair shot in my book. How do you describe something that is so…so…I’m in trouble. It is indescribable, and that is not a good thing. Or is it? 

Is this a kissing movie?

To me, and hopefully my characters share some aspect of this thought, love pushes and pulls, it is an infinite paradox. It is universal and personal; indefinable and recognizable. It is shared and horded. It is emotional and physical, and sometimes everywhere in between. It drives us to make stupid and wonderful decisions. Love causes heartache and butterflies, it grows and fades. It’s an excuse for the irrational, a wakeup call to the calculated. 

It is born with us but does not end with us. We leave our love behind and we are loved even when we are gone. Those who receive it do not always reciprocate, yet even if we try not to share it, we cannot avoid its grip on us. 

There is no one way to show love or feel loved. Love learns from our mistakes, most of which love caused. Love helps us keep perspective and often lose it.  Love remembers, yet causes us to forget. We must love ourselves in order to truly love others, yet we often disobey this need because our love for others is so strong. We love those who raise us and those whom we raise. There is an opposite of love, use any word you’d like to describe it, yet love is always at its root. 

Thankfully, we often display our love through actions. That may be a different post entirely, but the paradox of love generally feeds into what we do. And with this personal revelation, my characters must show their unique understanding of universal love through their individual actions. They must be selfish and selfless, take and give, and do downright dumb, irrational, but totally understandable, things.


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Btw - My good friend starred in a mini-documentary on love a few months ago.  Check it out: