Love, As I See It

• Posted by Raine Phoenix July 10, 2015 #Love  #friendship  #friendliness  914 views
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  I consider myself to be a being of love.  I love people, animals, plants, the universe in which we live, everything.  I am always quick to show or to tell you that I love you and that you are in my heart, that you matter to me and are important.  I believe that one of the most powerful displays of affection is not simple words or sex, but something no more basic than hugs.  Feeling that closeness to another human being (or dog or cat for that matter) to me means more to me than gifts, favors or mere words.

  
  

  It occurs to me that love can be a very elusive, ambiguous and broad term with so many different applications.  If you were to look up the word “love” in a thesaurus, you’ll find maybe three other words that come reasonably close in definition to love, but not quite say it so eloquently or completely as love does.  However, the word “hate” has more than double the amount of direct synonyms than does love, and even more branching terms.

  Love is one-of-a-kind. Unfortunately, because of this fact, it’s easy to be misinterpreted.  For instance, we say, “I love my (child, wife/husband, dog, truck, sandals, friends, you, etc),” and utilize the same word to express our affection for the subject.  We all know that no one loves their favorite football team in the same way that they love their child, nor their child the same way that they love their wife or husband, and yet there is only the one word that we use to describe our affinity for the objects of our affection. 

  I find that, in my own life, with how freely I express my affection for everyone, many people expect that I am in love with them or, completely miss the point in some other fashion.  I try to make it as clear as possible to show people how I feel, but for many, rather than being something fluid and multi-dimensional, love is very black and white.  If they aren’t your family or related to you in some way, you’re clearly in love with the person whom you address.  Unfortunately, it’s this mentality about love that leads to jealousy, which takes something as beautiful and as pure as love, and turns it into something that resembles its polar opposite.

  I’ve been asked most of my life, how can you love everybody?  How do you love so much?  Why do you love so much?  How can you love people who are so fundamentally different from yourself?  How can you love anybody when you don’t even love yourself?  I’m constantly questioned for and about my capacity to love.  For me, the answer is simple.  I don’t need a reason to.

  My question to those who don’t understand this part of me is, why is it so hard, so baffling and so unacceptable or inconceivable for you to accept the notion that there exist people who love?  Why is it so much more acceptable for people to hate one another?  Why is it that when we see people displaying their affection publicly, we become uncomfortable and exclaim things like, “Get a room,” whereas, if there’s a fight down the street, people gather from all around to watch it?  Why are the most commonly watched programs on TV those that feature insulting, inflammatory, abrasive celebrity judges criticizing what normal people pour their hearts and souls into?  Why do we accept hate over love?

  They say love is blind.  I completely agree.  Love is ageless, sexless, and it is not prejudiced in any way.  True love is colorblind, transcends conflicting beliefs and ideals, money and status, circumstance or chance.  I know this to be true.  Some may label me an idealist.  I may be.  This is the one ideal that I will always cleave to.  With that knowledge, you will always know where I stand with you; when I tell you I love you, you know that I’m telling the truth.  

  I live in my heart, and it’s a great and grand place to live.