What is love?

[kuoleva]

Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

Okay, that aside...

At least among my circle of friends, "I love you," has been thrown around so much, it's lost it's meaning. I *attempted* to tell my best friend that I think I'm in love with him, and apparently "I love you" just means "You're my friend". I didn't have the guts to say "I'm in love with you", so I just popped out an "I love you" and hoped he would get the meaning. Well, that failed.

So...

What is love, anyways? Is it just a chemical reaction in the brain? Is it something more?

How do you define love? Do you think there is a difference in loving someone, and being in love with someone? Do you think "I love you" is overused/lost it's meaning?

I just wanted some opinions on this, it might even help me with my gay rights paper, but don't bring that up unless you have to, I'd rather not start a flame war. >.< The same goes for religion.

[Okami]

True love is something that's very intimate, very personal...two people being interconnected with one another. I mean this in a way that extends to friendship. Love does not exist without friendship. It's in sharing the highs and lows of life and laughing when you make a mistake, and forgiving one another when one has wronged the other.

Love is a beautiful thing!

Love has been just as overused as hate. No one truly knows the real meaning of the word anymore, and that's a sad thing indeed. =/

[Poryhack]

For what it's worth, the definition I've worked out is very good friendship (go make a "what is friendship?" thread? lol) + sexual intimacy. I'd like to see if others think it's any more...

I don't think "i love you" can be misinterpreted to badly. You should be able to get by other cues if the person is saying it in a casual, joking manner or a serious one.

[Greencat]

Well, when you say "I love you!" when you are both joking around, it usually means you really enjoy their company and are Best Friends (Opposite Gender here, though). Otherwise, you mean "I really, really, really like you and want to be with you forever!" ;P

[Kaarosu]

A quote that sums up what I think love is:

"Love Is the Irresistible Desire to be Irresistibly Desired." - Mark Twain

Which boils down Pory's definition of it when it comes to 'Romantic' love.

As for your question about 'I Love You' being overused or having lost meaning, I don't think it has. Since love can mean anything from affection/lust/romance. I believe this all depends in what context and tone you use.

Hopefully this makes sense, it's almost 2AM here. Oh well it should be close enough.

[HottSushiz]

I think:

"Words can't fully grasp the definition of love"

and yeah saying "I love you" is usually in a joking manner... well when boys around, but when it's just 1 on 1, depending on the situation, i think that's when you can understand it.

[Okami]

Gosh, I love Mark Twain. That quote sums it up perfectly. *melts into a puddle of goo*

For me, there are three songs I would like to share that define what I'm looking for in love...

Someday Soon ~ Francesca Battistelli

I wanna be the one who knows everything about you

I wanna be the one who’s always on your mind

I wanna be the one to get all of your affection and attention

You’re the one that I’ve been waiting for, for all this time

And I can’t imagine anything, anything better than

(Chorus)

Someday falling in love with you

Holding your hand

Making our plans all come true

Someday under a sky so blue

I’ll give you my heart

Our story will start

Someday soon

I wanna be the one who does everything with you

Watching stars, washing cars, taking walks, going to the store

I wanna be the one who gets to change her last name someday

To something that sounds something more like yours

(Chorus)

Yeah I’ll be telling you I love you

On a picture perfect day

And those words inside my head

They sound like angels singing praise

It’s what I was made to say

(chorus)

Real Life Fairytale ~ Plumb

You ran around inside my head

When you passed out, I felt dead

And I realized you make me live

And when my world starts to cave in, you jump inside and take my hand

No matter where, you are there

Will I ever see, what you could see in me? I do, I just believe that we will always be and dream, yeah

Well, I will never be the sign that we must see, that you and me were meant to be so just believe why we are together

You are my light, you are my star, you are my sunshine and my dark

You are the everything I dreamed about

You are the guy who stole my heart

I am the girl you're always smiling for

We have a love people dream about

A real life fairytale

I thought that I would be alone

You caught my eye and I was home

And I realized that this was love

I see the world through different eyes

I look at you by my side

No matter where, you're always there

Will I ever see what you could see in me? I do, I just believe that we will always be and dream, yeah

Well, I will never be the side that you will see, that you and me were meant to be so just believe why we are together

You are my light, you are my star

You are my sunshine and my dark

You are the everything I dreamed about

You are the guy who stole my heart

I am the girl you're always smiling for

We have a love people dream about

Dream with me, make me believe that this is a real life fairytale!

You are my light, you are my star

You are my sunshine, and my dark

You are the everything I dreamed about!

You are the guy who stole my heart

I am the girl you're always smiling for

We have a love people dream about

A real life fairytale

A real life fairtytale

A real life fairytale

Sink N Swim ~ Plumb

I lost it all

You got it back

Believed in me

When I gave up on myself again

A sudden rain

Revealed your face

I knew right then

No matter where

I go I'd have your hand to hold

We will sink and

We will swim

Til' the ocean turns to sand

We will laugh

We will cry

Til' there's no more breath inside

Cause we will sink

But we will swim

I was,

A tender reed

Bent in the wind

And then the storm had passed

And you helped me stand upright again

So here we are

Nothing to lose

So take my hand

We'll jump right in

The water's warm

Its time to live

We will sink and

We will swim

Til' the ocean turns to sand

We will laugh

We will cry Til' there's no more breath inside

Cause we will sink

But we will swim

It doesn't rain

For nothing

It will shine

For you

We will sink and

We will swim

Til' the ocean turns to sand

We will laugh

We will cry

Til' there's no more breath inside

Cause we will sink

But we will swim

I want just this amazing, passionate thing with my future husband, pure and beautiful. :]

[Zafur]

Hmm. Love doesn't always include sexual intimacy. Especially for asexuals...

Right now, I can't think if romantic love is "higher" than platonic love... I think that they might both be able to be at the same levels at their highest, just that they feel different.

I never actually looked into love too much, so I won't try blabbing a lot about what I don't know of. Emotions are part of our mind, and our mind, or awareness is created from our brain... So, it's likely love is chemical, at least partially.

As for love losing it's meaning... I don't think it has. Maybe used so much that people don't automatically think romantic, but I think it should be obvious when you tell someone, what you really mean. Tone of voice and such.

[Sir Xero]

I have absolutely no clue. I don't want to get technical here... i can though,

Hm, i guess it is the state of mind in which you care greatly for someone, for their looks, how they do things, how they act, how they treat people (or you), or however smart they are, and etc, usually of the different sex. That is, unless it is family members, but you "love" them for all of the same reasons. However, it is outside the family and of different sex (usually), then you would love them for all of those reasons i stated. You could technically "love" the person of the same sex (as if they were a good friend, etc), but you don't mean it in a sensual or affectionate way.

However, if it is in a sensual/affectionate/(insert some word here, i ran out of ideas), hopefully towards a different sex, then you could "love" them, that is if you want to "be with" that person for the rest of your life.

That's all i can think of.

EDIT

For what it's worth, the definition I've worked out is very good friendship (go make a "what is friendship?" thread? lol) + sexual intimacy. I'd like to see if others think it's any more...

I don't think "i love you" can be misinterpreted to badly. You should be able to get by other cues if the person is saying it in a casual, joking manner or a serious one.

yes, this practically sums up what i said, you could say.

[Minamimoto]

****.You beat me to it.>.> I was about to start singing that song.

Love is nothing but a feeling that comes from your heart and goes to others,ever spreading,never dying.

[girox]

It depends, as many know, it may come in every shape and form family love, friendship, couple love...

A very hard question indeed, I believe it's what drives us to do things and how we do them...

[pokemonfan]

True love...a complex thing and hard to find these days...with the divided families, broken relationships, and over all wounded realities of family life it is a hard thing to come across in a typical home. For one, love is reflected by actions and not by saying I love you. Although saying that gets at your initial idea it doesn't mean anything if not backed by actions. You can say I love you 50 times to a person and then slap them in the face so then would those sayings mean anything? No, would be the correct answer i think.

Love is something when you are willing to do anything for someone or something so that they can be "Happy" instead of yourself I believe that this also can come in with marriage to show a deeper more complex love that is hard to fully understand until well..your are married.

Whether or not someone can know if something really is love is quite debatable and I believe the fact that you can determine if something is love before hand is ridiculous. The fact that a middleschooler-highschool can actually say that they are in love is crazy. What they are asking for is a broken heart. That is my opinion on things. If you really like the person express it in your actions. That would be my advice.

[DeathWatch]

Well, there are a lot of different opinions of love like some people think love is a feeling that you get when you are with a girl. Or some people think that love is a terrible thing and don't want to get into it.

[Endless Eden]

Never giving up.

[YuzuruHitokiri]

What is love, anyways? Is it just a chemical reaction in the brain? Is it something more?

Scientifically speaking, yes... If we as humans wish to psychologically interpret the instinctual release of chemical such as serotonin and dopemine by the brain in desirable situations that the brain enjoys, then yes, it means something more... If we do not wish to interpret the release of those chemicals as something more, then so be it...

How do you define love? Do you think there is a difference in loving someone, and being in love with someone? Do you think "I love you" is overused/lost it's meaning?

Ooo... That's a tricky one... How do I put this?... Love is a human emotion created by the conscious part of the brain in response to a social situation that is extremely pleasurable to the mind of that particular human. It causes the release of chemicals that give a "natural high" to the brain such as dopemine and serotonin that in turn cause the human experiencing the emotion great pleasure. This pleasure instinctively causes the human to want to repeat the action or situation associated with the release of the chemicals so that it can happen repeatedly. This can lead to situations of repeated or prolonged contact with other human(s) that that particular human finds desirable.

Is that good enough for you?