I often use a variety of words in my posts as you would of noticed, I have have great appreciation and quite a efficient understanding of words. The English language has such depth to it and so many options for saying the same thing. Alas after 30 years there is still one word I haven't quite grasped, its definitive meaning evades me and I wonder if I will ever have a full understanding of it.
I shall begin by quoting Massive Attack “love is a verb, love is a doing word”. Yes boys and girls that is today's subject – the most fluid and difficult word I know. Every day that word is spoken by nearly each and every one of us and in all likelihood it meant differently each and every time. It changes form every time it is spoken by whomever it is spoken. It doesn't have a 'solid' form hence my confusion and my cautious relationship with it.
The biggest unanswered question I know is, what is love? Frankly I have never come even close to discovering the answer, whenever I believe I have taken a step closer to it I realise that I have merely found another dimension. Therein lies my problem – I have yet to fully explore each dimension and understand what it means to others.
I have many issues revolving around my poor grasp of the concept that a word can change from person to person, from one minute to the next. When a word is used as liberally as confetti the natural thought process would say it would be devalued but in the case of love it breaks all rules, it builds in power every time it is used rather than becoming cheapened. This defiance of logic probably explains why it perplexes me so much.
I love the smell of freshly baked bread, I love my mum – two statements that couldn't be further apart in meaning but yet they are united by the same word. Each time that word is uttered to another it is meant uniquely for that person, it won't be used in the same way again, but how do we decipher how it is meant? How do we decipher how we mean it? Love is the one word that only gives me questions without yielding a single answer.
It is apparently never used lightly, if this the case why is it used so often? Does it ever sit still and remain the same or is it constantly evolving? After 30 years of sharing my life with a word, I still know it no better than the stranger on the street. On the occasions that it used towards me I believe I know how it is meant, I want to believe I understand but as I have said before the actual meaning and what it perceived by the recipient are often two very different things.
Maybe there is an element of trying too hard to define everything, wanting everything to tidy without any fuzzy ages but then again that probably isn't living in the real world – everything has an element of a fuzzy edge, slightly out of focus. I'm now beginning to think that I should stop searching for the answers as that makes the journey of discovery that bit harder. Maybe we all try too hard to define every emotion.
Love isn't a standalone emotion, it is the result of a myriad of other feelings. The difference in each of these feelings effect the result, effect what one expresses to another.
I am now a step forward, perhaps.
Thankyou for your time everyone. Take care.
Enjoy today, look forward to tomorrow.
Love, I had never really thought about each meaning or whether or not I meant it in the way the other took it..... I always just hope that it is taken correctly and no one gets hurt.
ReplyDeleteI love my mother as well, I also love my friends unconditionally as well as my husband, children and, of course, pets. But as you say, it all has different meaning, for example, I certainly love my dog less than my husband but I do love the dog unconditionally as I do my husband and so on.
This is a great topic. I am surprised that there are no comments yet as I am sure you have touched many. I will have to think of this all day...and in the meantime, love the fact you got me thinking.... :o)
Take care.....
Ok you hit the subject I just love. Love, what is love, my deffinition of love is this, simple but yet descriptive. Love is.... something you can give, yet not necessarily need it in return, it is trust, hope, friendship, faith, blind faith, it isn't however romantic. Romantic is a word with all of these feelings above, it is strange, but my understanding of love is they guy you wake with, dribble on the pillow the bruises in the morning from the elbow because he snores the frustration of a toilet seat beaing left up (which is so untidy), the lynx required before you get into the toilet, the lack of scraping plates and just wiping the crumbs down off the worktop, love is partnership, love is loving those little things that you don't really want to change. I love God, I love my husband, I love my kids, I love my friends all unconditionally and I would never stab them in the back and always keep their secrets as it is between us no matter what happens to our friendship and how we break what was said then is still kept. Wow I do waffle, I love to waffle, unconditionally of course lol (laugh out loud, not lots of love)
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