The question “what is love” is a question by many. A question that has no definite answer and a question everyone wants to know the perfect answer. The bible has its answer to this question too. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 tells us that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” Others think that love is something else. Whatever definition you have about love, one thing is for sure: that love is a concept, and idea, a belief.
I would like to stress my idea about love. That love is a concept. Although there are many types of love as what we can read in literature, I would be talking about the love that lovers have, the kind of love that people who are in an intimate relationship have. Love as love.
It is common to hear from someone who is in love to say the words “I love you” and “I love you too” is the most appropriate response in a conversation. But somehow, the question of why and how seems to be forgotten. Why do you love the person? How did you know it was love that you felt and not something else? Other people might say that love can never be explained, it is something that one can just feel. My question is, what exactly did you feel? “Love” Perfect! But I really don’t get it. So I asked some of my friends the same old question, “what is love”.
One of them told me that “love is when I feel secured with someone, love is when I feel happiness, and love is when I ask for nothing else as long as I have him”. Another told me that “love is when you find yourself smiling just sitting beside him; love is when you don’t care about the world as long as you are with him, and love is a mutual feeling shared by two people.” Other answers had the same thought, almost everything were positive except the answer of someone who loved me before: “love is sacrifice”.
When I asked then how can they tell that it is already love, they told me situations that would tell them that it is already love. Conditions that if were met and fulfilled, and then they say that they are already in love. But, if suddenly everything changes, then love changes. For example, someone related love to happiness and when she feels happy whenever she is with that person then she is in love. But what if she is not happy anymore? Is it safe to conclude that she is not in love? Or was she ever in love in the first place? Another situation is that one interprets love if a person shows too much care. What if that person gets too busy or it is natural for that person to be caring. The latter one can sometimes lead to assumptions, rejection and hard feelings. So, if the things that you relate love to do not happen anymore, then it would mean that love does not exist anymore. And since there no mo love, then your concept of love cannot be met anymore. Therefore, love is a concept.