What is Love Really?
What is Love Really?
Love between two persons defined, but not to be particularly confined to romantic Love nor that Love you have towards a family member.
One of the hardest things in life to really figure out is this question at hand, what is Love.This attempt to answer that is not exhaustive, nor conclusive, but just an attempt to convey what I really feel in my heart.This feeling is just in the present, for Love like so many things in life is ever growing and ever expanding.Let me know what YOU think. A vast majority of the context I give credit to John Powell, SE.J. a professor at Loyola University in Chicago.
The Counterfeits Of Love
- The Physical Conquest
- One or both partners see the other primarily as a source of physical pleasure. The details and concessions of the whole relationship are all arranged to maximize the possibilities and opportunities for physical gratification. The partner is 'used,' perhaps even willingly and without deception, as a source of bodily pleasure. Whatever protests to the contrary are raised, the partner is viewed only as a thing, an object, a condition and a source of self-gratification.
- The Psychological Conquest
- The bright lines and the right moves are here more subtle, designed to seduce the partner psychologically, to get him or her to fall in love, to fall at the feet of the conqueror, to be dominated and submissive not just as a body but as a person. When this strategy succeeds, the supposed "lover" almost immediately loses interest in the other who has won over. He or she becomes just one more trophy in the game room of the mind. " When the fish is in the boat, the fun is all over."
- The Projected Image
- Usually when two persons first "fall in love," it is not with the reality of the other person but with a 'projection' of what a loved one should be. It may be that the projected image is derived from a mother or father or a dream. Carl Jung said that "every man carries his Eve in himself," meaning that every man carries with in his subconscious the image of what a lovable woman is. Likewise, of course, every Eve carries her Adam within herself. This explains why certain men "fall for" certain types of women, and vice versa. The image projected may, in some cases, have very little relationship to the real person. The problem with this is that if the person insists on keeping the image and making the other conform to it, he or she will love only an image, only a projection, and will not even get to know the real other person.
Genuine Love
Two solitudes that protect, touch, and greet each other.
Here we find the only reality worthy of the name Love. The two partners drop, however gradually, the projected image, which was the first source of attraction, to find the even more beautiful reality of the person. They are willing to acknowledge and respect otherness in each other. Each person values and tries to promote the inner vision and mysterious destiny of the other. Each counts it a privilege to assist in the growth and realization of the other's vision and destiny. Erich Fromm wrote: Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a "standing in," not a "falling in." In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving.
1 John 4:7-11 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Laws We Live By
Whether we believe them or not!
- Law of Gravity
- We all know about this one, the force that keeps us down to earth so to speak
- Law of Reciprocity
- This law is just as influential on our live as is Gravity. The Golden rule! Luke 6:31 'And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.' And in Luke 6:38 'Give and it shall be given unto you;'............We today say ' what goes around comes around'.
It's the same principal,every religion in the world has a version of this law, ie; Karma. There is no getting around it, as there is no getting around Gravity.
- Law of Use
- This law again is taught by Jesus in his parable of the Talents, stating basically that if you have it and don't use it, you'll lose it, but if you do use it you release this law to set about an exponential growth of what it is you're using. The principals of delayed gratification and faithful stewardship play a big part of this Laws use and the rewards it bestows.
- Law of Perseverance
- Jesus teaches us in Matthew 7:7-11 'Ask, and it shall be given you;seek, and ye shall find,knock, and it shall opened unto you:'.............where those verbs are written in the original language to imply keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. We say today 'keep on keeping on' and so we must, for when we do the rewards abound.
- Law of Responsibility
- Luke 12:48 says 'For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.' It's just plain common sense we don't require as much responsibility out of a janitor as we do of an airline pilot. Why? It's the Law of Responsibility.
We are each accountable what ever the level of responsibility that we have been given or have accepted, but until we are faithful to that we should not be given or take on any more or consequences will be payed, similar to Gravity, if you jump off a tall building you will fall.
Any comments or questions E-mail Jim here. Drop Me A Note.
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