What is Love?

One of the great questions of all time. Many have tackled it and few have come out on top. Perhaps, though, in its purest form, this is optimum medium through which to discuss the question.

“What is Love?” Many have attempted to answer this question. Thyropedes tells us:

“[Love] must be viewed from the outside, for a man in love is one without sense. He is one who cannot see nor smell for the overpowering stench of belonging. He cannot feel nor taste for the waves of salty ocean that drown him. It is all one can imagine and more, and he owes it to just one other.”

Similarly, in his 15th Century text, Boves in Ano Est, Hermann Werminstrümiddernacht writes:

“To love is to find beauty in the sole of one’s attention. Only through pure adoration can you begin to realise this.”

More recently still, Haddaway puts it as so:

“Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more.”

Great philosophers aside, the word love is used regularly in day-to-day life. “I love this film” or “I love that food” – it is easy to argue that the word is overused. When people then turn to express their feelings to a partner or family member, it may lose some weight, but for the tone of their voice.

So where does Love place itself in a modern society? This writer would suggest we should – ironically – seek to find love less through desiring it and more through observing it. Rather than an opening statement, announcing your love should be an afterthought, a pondering of your thoughts in the shower. Avoid using it as a get out clause and a way to avoid true description of you enjoyment, but instead let it fall around you like leaves in autumn – not being gathered and stored but admired and let to be. And just as the leaves may crumble in frost, so may love – but have faith that you will once again see that red and gold snow, most likely from the same tree.

What is Love? It is there in your happiness of every kind. It is usually invisible to us, especially in a digital era, but it will be sure to drop through. Love is not the great Minotaur that must be chained, it is the adventure of the labyrinth, to be enjoyed. Make sure to go out today, and sling your love someone else’s way.