Love, what is it?

[Frozen Beat]

Then you won't receive the same level of love you would as if you knew them in real life.

Love has many levels
-liking someone would probably be so mild, it's in another category, which is "liking someone"
-Internet love lolololololololol
-loving someone, where you think about them often
-obsession, you can't stop thinking about them. This is bad for a number of reasons.
-loving someone while they love you back.

Love to be honest, is quite the "vague" term. There are loads of ways to describe it, and define it.

[xealix]

Originally Posted by Frozen Beat

Then you won't receive the same level of love you would as if you knew them in real life.

Love has many levels
-liking someone would probably be so mild, it's in another category, which is "liking someone"
-Internet love lolololololololol
-loving someone, where you think about them often
-obsession, you can't stop thinking about them. This is bad for a number of reasons.
-loving someone while they love you back.

Love to be honest, is quite the "vague" term. There are loads of ways to describe it, and define it.

I have been with her in real life, and i love her so much. I'm prepared to wait as long as i have to, because i know that this girl is the one i want to be with forever. Its actually my first relationship in my entire life, and this is the feeling i have been waiting for. Its something i can't even describe. To me if thats not love then i dont know what is. I think proving that distance isn't a problem shows that. Im just counting down the days till i see her again.

[Necros140606]

serious post

Love: a single word expressing a wide gamma of feelings of affection.

"Love" for person a =/= "love" for person b

until you come up with a standard for love, which means quantifying every single action, thought and preposition, it's pointless find a shared answer. love differs from one to the other just like the experiences he's/she's received (therefore love is likely to be different for everyone) BUT somewhat watered down in difference by the examples the media and the outside world keeps pushing into us.

[Frozen Beat]

Originally Posted by xealix

I have been with her in real life, and i love her so much. I'm prepared to wait as long as i have to, because i know that this girl is the one i want to be with forever. Its actually my first relationship in my entire life, and this is the feeling i have been waiting for. Its something i can't even describe. To me if thats not love then i dont know what is. I think proving that distance isn't a problem shows that. Im just counting down the days till i see her again.

Okay. Lemme know when you guys break up. You're no different, they all say these things, then come up with something cheesy called "i can't even describe it." Everybody gets that feeling when they fall in love, and 99% of the time with their first love, people break up, and I know that feeling believe it or not.

[Apologizes to Danny for hypocrisy]

Love may as well be different for everyone, but our brains are all engineered in the same way. Who knows hehe.

[xealix]

Originally Posted by Frozen Beat

Okay. Lemme know when you guys break up. You're no different, they all say these things, then come up with something cheesy called "i can't even describe it." Everybody gets that feeling when they fall in love, and 99% of the time with their first love, people break up, and I know that feeling believe it or not.

[Apologizes to Danny for hypocrisy]

Love may as well be different for everyone, but our brains are all engineered in the same way. Who knows hehe.

I dont know because its not like i havent liked other people, because i have and that was after i told her that i loved her. she also said that she loved me back. However after that she found someone closer to where she lived, that was a six month relationship but i couldnt find anyone in all that time that was actually better then her. so i waited and now we are together, but i will be sure to let you know if we break up

so trying to shoot me down wont really work, but i wish you luck i actually believe in myself and this relationship. I have seen them work. my friend Zach actually moved to texas this year to go live with his girlfriend and things seem to be going great for them. I know a lot of relationships do not work out but there are those few that do and who knows ours just might be one of those so im not willing to give up just because of a few fights, and i know she isnt either.

[slipstrike0159]

First off, this is not a chit chat place to talk about your own relationships. Its entirely conceptual and is based off of CRITICAL THINKING. Kindly go away or post more wisely.

Anyway to answer the original question you have to look at all the defining characteristics. When you try to define it you will likely run into many different levels of such an emotion. I will assume you have already come to the conclusion that love is an emotion of several levels of severity since you call for a definition of "pure love". Like reach said, its a culmination of aspects. However if you were to ask me of a simple personal opinion i would say that you would define pure love as sacrificial devotion with the most correct intentions behind it (i say intentions loosely because i know many people will argue the semantics of 'intentions'). We as humans recognize that the highest form of bonding with someone is complete devotion, whether that is seen as only loving one individual or simply having an (un)spoken trust with someone else, etc. Of course devotion in of itself has varying levels, this is why i bring up sacrifice. You can see all around in our media or even daily life how the idea of sacrificing yourself for someone else is seen as the ultimate act of kindness, as in sacrificing your time and service to help someone less fortunate or even just simply doing something that inconveniences you with the only hope of reimbursement being that you helped someone else. So when you throw those two together i believe you can come up with a definition that attempts to scratch the surface.

However, i will say this. Love is a different thing to different people. Our own personal definitions vary based on a vast amount of things. That being said, i think it is impossible to define love, or rather "pure love", as pertaining to everyone because it is an emotion that is inherently different for every person. Although, if you want to try anyway, you can gather up some common traits or feelings someone comes upon in their own situation and use that culmination of broadly accepted feelings to describe it. Just understand that it IS different, as well as different on varying levels, for every person and therefore is mostly opinionated and situational definitions.

The funniest thing about love in my personal opinion is how often times it is thought of as a spectrum with respect to hate, whereas love being on one side and hate the opposite. At the same time however, it is thought of as having a thin line between love and hate seeing as how one can jump from one to the other very easily. So just for some food for thought questions; is it a spectrum or a line to cross? In the case of the line, does that suggest that even 'pure love' can get easily pushed across the line under the right circumstances? Or in the case of the spectrum does that suggest sometimes as you approach the end of one side you see traits exhibited on the opposite end?
I for one think of it as two sides of the same coin. Although they are very distinctly recognized as opposites, with enough force you can change the side of the coin that is facing up. And in that respect, sometimes your chances at either is decided by that 50-50 attempt at a flip of a coin.

[Frozen Beat]

'pure love' can. Virtually everything can break given the right circumstances.

I believe instead of a spectrum or a line, it's both. You go from one end to the other of the spectrum.

beinning of spectrum-hate
middle of spectrum-idc lololol
end of spectrum-love yah

so when you get to the end, and something pushes you over, you end up back where you started. Hate. Although if you get pushed in a different direction somehow, you may end up being lost, and perhaps end up somewhere within the midde.

I love how cheesy this topic got when xealix got here.

Have fun with my metaphors too rofl.

[Cavernio]

"Or in the case of the spectrum does that suggest sometimes as you approach the end of one side you see traits exhibited on the opposite end?"
So you mean you think it might be that the spectrum is circular?

I don't think I agree with either the line or spectrum thing, although I'm not sure I fully understand the line thing. I understand the love/hate being opposite perception, but when I think about it, I certainly don't agree with it.

I think that hate and love may be close in that they are both very strong emotions, and one only experiences strong emotions when they care, or if not 'care', the focus of your hate is someone who matters. You can't hate someone you don't care about.

On a slightly different note, things like respect and admiration can make up 'love'. They can also be part of a reason to hate someone too though, like if you're in competition with them.

[revolutionomega]

Originally Posted by Zythus

*I am a computer beep boop.*

~I personally think that people take love too seriously.~
::In my opinion love is a varying concept, ranging from person-to-person in varying levels.
-Love does not necessarily imply attraction (Parent to child)
-Love can be imposed (Someone may dislike their parent, but they still love them)
-Love does not have to be expressed towards a living thing (A man loves money because he enjoys it and finds it as a source of happiness)
-Love can be artificial (you can love an imaginary character or think you love someone you don't even know, however as Sarahxjane mentioned, it is triggered by your brain, such as hormones; this can also be a lustful notion)
-Love can be wonderful, but it can be blinding (sometimes causing rational people to become irrational because they are unwilling to believe anything they may love could ever hurt them as it causes them great joy)

There's no need to overcomplicate what love is. Just find what it means to YOU.
Yes? Yes.

[Frozen Beat]

Originally Posted by Cavernio

"Or in the case of the spectrum does that suggest sometimes as you approach the end of one side you see traits exhibited on the opposite end?"
So you mean you think it might be that the spectrum is circular?

I don't think I agree with either the line or spectrum thing, although I'm not sure I fully understand the line thing. I understand the love/hate being opposite perception, but when I think about it, I certainly don't agree with it.

I think that hate and love may be close in that they are both very strong emotions, and one only experiences strong emotions when they care, or if not 'care', the focus of your hate is someone who matters. You can't hate someone you don't care about.

On a slightly different note, things like respect and admiration can make up 'love'. They can also be part of a reason to hate someone too though, like if you're in competition with them.

What.

You can not care about someone and hate them.

You could not care about whatever **** happens to the moron, and you could totally hate them.

Dude, the spectrum is not circular. How'd you get that. I simply used a metaphor to help represent it, because it's tricky otherwise. No circle. Metaphor.

[Wineandbread]

Doesn't not caring for someone imply that you are emotionally detached from them? If that's the case, then you can't really hate them.

[Frozen Beat]

Subconsciously I guess -_-

[Cavernio]

Frozen-beat:
I only hate people who I know. If I don't care about someone, then why would I hate them? I'd be indifferent towards them. I can only hate someone if they affect me in some way, shape or form, hence I care about them in some way, shape or form. You hate people who do or who express things you find distasteful, whos morals and values are opposite yours, or someone who's wronged you. In all those cases, you have some sort of 'relationship' with them. Hate is similar to love in that they're both strong feelings about someone.
Furthermore, you are more apt to hate someone who you love when they wrong you than someone you don't know.
eg: Pretend your mom sells you into slavery. Do you hate your mom or the slaver worse?

Also, I wasn't responding to anything you said when I was talking about a spectrum, I was responding to slipstrike, hence the quote from him.

[Frozen Beat]

If my mom sold me into slavery, then okay. I hate her then. No love left at all. Unless there was circumstances involved, example: she had to otherwise 10 other people would die.

I've learnt that grieving or living in the past is wasted energy. Moving ahead is an entirely new thing.

Although your example was sh*t in the sense that the chances of that happening are practically nil.

Also, you just used your own definition of "knowing" someone. Perhaps you don't really know them at all. Maybe you either think or believe. Who knows ;].

[MDMAngel]

Originally Posted by Frozen Beat

If my mom sold me into slavery, then okay. I hate her then. No love left at all. Unless there was circumstances involved, example: she had to otherwise 10 other people would die.

I've learnt that grieving or living in the past is wasted energy. Moving ahead is an entirely new thing.

Although your example was sh*t in the sense that the chances of that happening are practically nil.

Also, you just used your own definition of "knowing" someone. Perhaps you don't really know them at all. Maybe you either think or believe. Who knows ;].

Hate has multiple meanings. Do you want to clear up on your definition of this "hate"? By the way, hate is a vague word. You can hate how something smells. Understand? Elaborate.

[Frozen Beat]

Wow Angel, that sounded just like something I'd say xD.

We're speaking about hate in the extreme sense. At least, that's what it seems to be. We're using the word as it's meant to be used.

[NyxDust]

As a young teen I use to believe love was all I needed and that I would find it one day. As an older teen, I believe in no such thing. Love has been proven to be a slight obsession with a person. It all has to do with chemicals in the brain and stuff, that make you feel well like your "in love".

Personally I think that we can love, but not be in love. The being in love I am talking about is.. "I am so in love with him, and he is the one I know I am going to spend the rest of my life with" etc

[AC1speakerbox]

Damn you, its stuck in my head now.

[Eeumi]

Originally Posted by Zythus

Quite the enigma to me I suppose. What is love and how is it justified?
standard answer? An emotion that shows affection towards another person or thing.
However, is that it? Is that piece of trash definition really discribing the egotostical and possessive side of it?
To me, I feel that love can be a very pure and influencial thought, but abused in every way possible in our world that it becomes political even. For example, I love you for your money. Alright cool. Is that it? Justifying greed and personal gain by blemishing the term " love". And yet, that goes to another question. Exactly how can love be justified purely and wholeheartedly? In our current world, love has become a standard excuse and diverson.

To explain my reasoning about the characteristics of the word love, I believe the relationship of love is very possessive and often a prime topic to boast about. Teenagers especially, with a newfound relationship, one certainly feels the pride of ditching the title of single and finally getting to be more "in". With that is one of my aspects of why love is egotistical. Possessiveness is quite apparent. She is MY wife or he is MY husband. Nothing truly negative, but devolope into the sense of a worn ego. Which brings me to my earlier question. Is there anyway that love can be justified without the onmipresent shadows that it casts?

I know there is much more to love, but I think its wise to positions this discussion on a basic level to avoid extreme bias or offending. This is a topic that, it would seem, I have fought and thought over for a long long time because I feel facsinated that love never cease to deviate in various different ways, not all of them in the right state of mind if you ask me. I ask for your opinions.

Well, I don't think love is an emotion at all. Actually I think love is acceptance. Accepting a person regardless of flaws they may have. Don't get me wrong affection comes naturally when dealing with love I just don't think that is the core of it all.

I do agree that people abuse love. Unfortunately people will say I love you for selfish reasons like money and will sugarcoat their true intent with an act that will surely sucker whoever they are with into giving them what they want.

As far as the possessive terms like MY husband and MY wife, can mean different things for different couples. I say it's only possessive when pure love doesn't back up the term.

[Shaydow]

Pure love is a selfless devotion of one's person to the well being of another. Or, if you truelly love someone, your only thought and desires toward that person are simply to make them happy.

Someone asked earlier for an example of an act of pure love, and no one gave one. As a father I can tell you that if I had to make a choice between the life of my child or my own life, I would instantlly choose to die so my child could live.

Some say this may be instinct, but if that's the case, then is love nothing more then the strongest of primal instincts? I don't belive so, otherwise we ( and other animals ) would not greive over the loss of one we loved. And even if it is just a strong natural instinct ment by nature to keep bonds in place for the betterment of the survival of the species, it still makes the chemical reactions no less meaningfull.

Almost all animals will grieve over the loss of one of thier own. Some animals have even been known, after lossing thier own offspring, to care for another, even ones outside of thier own species. While this may seem more chemical and instictual then emotional and spiritual to some, it STILL retains the emotional and spiritual elements, regardless of the cause and effect.

Just my 2 cents.