It seems like the world love gets thrown around a lot very loosely with out generation. I think about how many times I use the word a day, I LOVE avocados or I LOVE "insert male musician/actor/athlete here" or saying I love you to a casual acquittance, in passing. I think my friends and I started doing in in high school. Every person we saw in a day people heard some form of the phrase, "ok, love you bye". The word love has become so casual its as if in some instances it has no meaning at all. Now I'm thinking about it and I realize I'm not sure if I even know what love is. Of course you know that you love your family, your dog and your close friends. That's natural, simple as breathing and I'd say for the most part lacks your own decision in the matter.
So then I start thinking about my first boyfriend. "OH GOD NO" you're thinking to yourself right? "Doesn't this belong in a private journal somewhere?!", you're saying. It's part of my thought process though so I'm going to share a little piece of my past with you. I think the reason why I'm ruined on love now is because I thought I knew what it was ages 15-17 when I was under the illusion that a long term relationship was a good idea for a teenage...and then reality hit and people grow apart and I'm left thinking, if a person is always changing how can you love the same person forever? I'm definitely not the same person I was when I was 15. For that matter, I'm not even close to the same person I was 6 months ago. I think for me I feel this underlying pressure to want to get married and have babies and be in LOVE. But who knows if that's the right way, it all seems a little unnatural to me.
I think Shakespeare is right. I think love is fickle and fleeting. As deep as a fairies spell that can be turned on or off in an instant. I'm going to end this little tirade here, but be expecting another one real soon. Lots of blogging to make up!! Trying to learn to love(?) it.
Quinn, I'm glad you recognize that all people (or at least all interesting people :) are constantly changing -- I agree with Shakespeare on that one. But it might be a bit premature to give up on hope of all relationships on that basis. You might start by clarifying your own ideas about what love actually is, since you say you don't know for sure -- recognizing you don't know something you have taken for granted before is the first step in philosophy (here even Descartes would agree!), but if you stop there, you don't really get the benefit of creating your own philosophy. Perhaps you could try an empirical approach -- is there relationship you have observed that you think really DOES exemplify love? What characterizes that relationship?
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