Blogpost 4: Love is ...

       

 Love is a very special and meaningful word to each and everyone of us. Everyone has his/her own thoughts about love, to guide himself/herself into the kingdom of Love. By the way, What is Love? I know this question exists in our minds. If not it is still waiting to be discovered deeply in our hearts. 
  

 I've read several articles regarding about what is love. One article I've read was written by Kendra Cherry entitled "What Is Love?". In her article, she said that according to Sigmund Freud, the study of love in the past was left to the creative writer to depict for us the necessary conditions for loving. While research about this has grown tremendously over the last 20 years, early explorations into the nature and reasons for love drew considerable criticism. According to social psychologist Zick Rubin, love is characterized by three different things : attachment, caring and intimacy. Using a psychometric approach to love, Rubin devised a scale used to assess levels of liking and loving. While love is often seen as one of the basic human emotions such as anger or happiness, some have suggested that love is instead a cultural phenomenon that arises partly due to social pressures and expectations. If love were a purely cultural invention, it would stand to reason that love would simply not exist in some cultures. However anthropological research suggests that love is influenced by both biological drives and cultural influences. While hormones and biology are important, because the way we express and experience this emotion are influenced by our personal conceptions of love. 

"Despite the fact that love is one of the major human emotions (some would even say the most important one), love has only fairly recently became the subject of scientific." , Kendra said. 

When we talk about love, it is a wide range topic. No one can answer what Love really is. Some people might think that love is a biological or cultural phenomenon. Its the kind of thing that keeps poets and philosophers up at nights. But science, actually has a pretty good explanation for it to. 

Another article I've read was entitled "What Is Love, and What Isn't?" by Deborah Anapol. She said,  Love is inherently free. It cannot be bought, sold, or traded. You cannot make someone love you, nor can you prevent it, for any amount of money. Sexual stimulation and gratification, whether by way of fingers, mouths, objects, fantasy play, whips and chains, or just plain intercourse, can certainly be bought and sold, not to mention used to sell other things. Whether sex should be for sale is another question entirely, but love itself can not be sold. This doesn't mean that love allows destructive and abusive behaviors to go unchecked. Love speaks out for justice and protests when harm is being done. Love cares what becomes of you because love knows that we are all interconnected. Love is inherently compassionate and empathic. Love knows that the "other" is also oneself. This is the true nature of love and love itself can not be manipulated or restrained. Love honors the sovereignty of each soul. Love is its own law.

Deborah said, "Love is a force of nature. However much we may want to, we can not command, demand, or take away love, any more than we can command the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain to come and go according to our whims".

The truth is, the people have different meanings when talking about Love. Scientists may explain it  with different tests and observations . Psychologists may interpret it with our emotions. While some ordinary people may simplify it based on their emotions and actions. With their experiences they usually come up with a unique meaning of Love.