FINALLY...........a question

[SHATOUSHKA]

is love anything more than just an
amplified impulse to protect?

or is it just me?

[TastinGood]

Interesting.

*checks YM message archive dates/times*


Wow...even more interesting!

[TastinGood]

What makes you want to 'protect' something?

[zelazny]

what makes you fall in love with something?
i don't think shatzy is trying to get to the mechanism behind wanting to protect/falling in love, but i've had a severe case of protectionism towards a girl once, just once, for some reason.
i've fallen in love quite some times thereafter, but not the protectionism, but i think it is a form of love yes.

[gnosis_within]

nope. love is not an impulse to protect. you may want to protect something because you love it, but protection is not the base.

love is a word that we use to describe a feeling that we have toward a specific object (i use 'specific' because i do not believe in universal love). perhaps i could define love by describing what it is not. so that would be love is not hate. but what is hate? hate is not liking something/one. but hate is more than not liking something/one, it is an intensified dis-like. so love is not a dis-like or an intensified dis-like. ok, so we could say that love is liking something/one. but again, this is not correct, because love is more than a casual like (i like you, i more than like you, i just cant say it first [img]wink.gif[/img] ) so we can say that love is an intensified like. but if love is really just another form of like, why dont we just say 'i really like you' instead of 'i love you'?

come to think of it, i really cant define like either. i guess i like something if i find it to be good and/or pleasing, but then i would have to describe what i find good and pleasing. this whole thread could be nothing but tangent after tangent of me trying to define words that i use to define love, and i still wouldnt get anywhere.

love is love. all of the other things, protectionism, possession, etc, may result from a person loving something (for example, i love my cat, and i would kill anyone that tried to harm her. the feeling that i have for her that i call love has nothing to do with protecting her. i would protect her because i loved her, not the other way around.).

but maybe a definition of the word was not something you were looking for....could it be that you are searching for the motivation behind the feeling?

[img]rolleyes.gif[/img] <-- i like the old HB version of this pic a whole lot more than this one. note: i do not love it, just really like it.

[SHATOUSHKA]

this one --->

or this one --->

[TastinGood]

Those smileys wont be there tomorrey, shatzy.

[img]frown.gif[/img]

<font color="#6699FF" size="1">[ June 17, 2002 08:22 PM: Message edited by: TastinGood ]</font>

[SHATOUSHKA]

its tomorrey!!!

and thar she be!!!

[gnosis_within]

even though the serious part of my response is being ignored, i will follow up on it.

all words that we use to represent emotions/feelings are empty. we say like or love or happy or sad and assume that everyone knows what that means and how it feels, but really the way we feel is the only thing we know. we do not know how others feel even though we use the same words to describe our feelings.

for example, lets say that two people both claim to love each other, but one says 'i love you, so i will only be with you for the rest of my life and will never date another' while the other says 'i love you, but i think that dating other people is part of a good relationship and i am going to do it.'

now, can you really say that both people feel the same thing? i do not think you can; they have opposite feelings about what being in love means, or at least how one should show it. now, of course how certain people feel about certain things depends on the prevailing social norms, they either are conforming to them or rebelling against them, (which is a damned if you do, damned if you dont situation because no matter how much you have thought about it, you are either a conformist or a rebel) but this still leaves the word love without meaning.

i think that defining love is not the problem. i think it is people trying to get along in relationships when they feel differently about things. that is why in the above situation, the first person may say, 'you cant really love me, you want to see other people' while the other would say 'how can you say you love me, you dont want me to see other people.' i think that this is the problem in most relationships. people have different expectations, but do not make them known in the beginning (or some, who say one thing, then hope that the other will change their opinion over time and agree with them).

[SHATOUSHKA]

i think that no matter the situation,
you can never really know what
the other person really feels.
all you have to go on is their words.
perhaps its a problem with language...
we've already discussed language here,
but maybe it is.

then again, maybe its social/cultural.
i've discussed this many times, but i
just don't see whats so hard about understanding
that society and culture play a MAJOR
role in how a person sees things.

i am tired of (american) people thinking
that love is this big, spiritual awakening.
like one has just been enlightened from
the dark...
its not.
love is love is.
love is conditional. it is (and has always been)
based on conditions...standards, if you will.

i find it absurd.

for if those conditions/standards are altered
or rebelled against, love disappears.
thats a fact ruled by social cause...
not by individuals (lets not go round and
round on this one phrase).

you are no more than the society that created you.

try and step out of that.

think about how so many people try and find
'The One'. its as if to signify that NO OTHER
is capable of your love. or that no one could
possibly be loved by you.
thats bullshit!

love isn't a sales transaction.
you don't have a limited supply of it.
i feel that you should give it if you have it.

what is wrong with love that so many people
reduce it to a value so little??
are we only equipped to love so much??
shoud we start handing out applications??

WHATS THE DEAL????