Question #10

(This question is my own.) What is love?? (Seems simple..but.........)



Does anyone really know what love is? What did the linguists mean when they first uttered the word love? Did they have any idea how explosive this word would become? Were they so unable to comprehend the magnitude, the plethora of meaning that would too soon be jammed into a single syllable? What about all the different kinds of love? It's a verb and a noun, even in its simplest form! People hate it and love it (but what does it mean to love love??). Some say love hurts. Some say it's what makes the world go 'round. Maybe it does it all. But whatever it does, we all seem to agree that it is important to believe in one's own definition and to love in that way. So I find myself wondering, what kind of love do I believe in and how will I, too, love?



I look to some of the greats, some of the wise, to find a love that will work for me. I'm giving Bob Marley the first word, because he says there's "one love" and I'm interested in the simple. Despite his short lapse of confusion in his song "Is This Love", I believe he is one of those closest to really getting it, or at least really getting anything I could agree on. (Feel free to look up the full lyrics, but for now I'm breaking it down for the sake of being concise.) In his song "One Love", he seems to imply that there is only one love and that one love is synonymous (or, perhaps, deeply and fully connected) to one heart. But whose heart? The rest of the song implies that the "one heart" belongs to a creator, to "the Lord" whom he praises and, subsequently, "feel(s) all right." (Note that it is not saying that he feels "alright", which would conote a feeling of sober contentment, but he writes it "all right", as if to say that he can feel no wrong when praising the Lord, the One Heart, the One Love. This song provides a definition of sorts for the noun form of the word love, but does it efficiently provide a definition for the verb form? One could suggest that in order to love, one must praise the Lord and furthermore, "together to fight this Holy Armageddon." I can guess that if I were to approach Bob and ask how to love, if he were act consistently and not betray the song, he would advise me to love the Lord, and having referenced the Armageddon made known in Revelations, he would surely suggest I read the Bible in order to know just how to love. Hmm...who could have predicted that the face of an illegal narcotic is an evangelical Christian at the core? (I'll have to remember to reference ole Marley in my upcoming article about how much God loves pot..)


Next up is Lady Gaga, because her hidden face is one of the biggest faces of current pop culture. A little bit of background: she's crazy (like actually crazy), really blonde, has some of the strangest music videos you've ever seen and certainly the craziest outfits you've ever seen, she's possibly a hermaphrodite, probably bisexual, and she's pretty much my music idol. As for what she says about love, though, well...it pretty much sums up our nation's overall mindset. Or at least my generation's mindset. Basically, the Gags thinks love=sex..& revenge, as she equivocates the two in her latest hit "Bad Romance". There's plenty of hip thrusting and crotch grabbing and creepy violent advances.....idk she's just crazy, like I told you.

Third word goes to Shakespeare, because I'm a writer, and he was a genius. I think anyone knows how Shakespeare felt about love. He was passionate, compassionate, dark, lusty, deeply romantic, emotional.....his love is like throwing all of yourself into someone else and taking up all of them too until there is no more distinction, just a beautiful, swirling and throbbing bed of colors. His kind of love is the kind that breaks hearts. And leaves people resenting him and each other, and closed off with walls up.

I know each kind of love well. I've contributed to them all..I've participated. I can't say that a single one has come through for me, in the end, though. If I could rate them in difficulty, Lady's would be least (all you need is a bit of intoxication + a male + a female = love game aka sexy time) and Shakespeare's would be next difficult to do, although hands down is most difficult to recover from....and Bob's would hold the greatest difficulty (yet the greatest longevity?)

It doesn't take much to lust. It takes a little more to love. It takes a lot to choose love. That's the difference, I think, between the three..and even as I sit here knowing which ones will fail (Gags & Shakes) and which will fulfill (One Love) I find myself sick with the feeling that I will never (again) be able to latch onto One Heart after going so long off the inertia a simpler (and sadder) kind of "love".