What Is Love?

What is Love?

For thousands of years, philosophers, poets and indeed, nearly everyone who has experienced the raw, emotional tugging of their heart-strings, have pondered over the question, What is Love?

Men and women are equally afflicted by its influence вЂ" equally, but probably not similarly, for no one is privy to both viewpoints. People have given away, spent, or wasted fortunes in seeking restitution for their Love. Ruin without satisfaction has been the result in many cases.

Numberless unrequited and over-requited souls have died or done away with themselves for want of Love, or even from an excess of it.

Others have made their fortunes writing about Love, or singing of its mysteries. Myths have been based on it. Indeed it is the underlying theme of nearly all of them. The Moon and Stars have been revered for their influence over stricken lovers, young and old. In fact enormous quantities of romantic notions have been expounded on the subject. Its influence cannot be exaggerated; it is what makes the World go round.

We will address the question: What is Love?

It comes in many forms and intensities. From �cupboard’ love, to raging passion; from the gentle, caring love for a child, to deeply powerful love that can only be expressed and consummated in the act of copulation. There is �Ethereal’ love, which is not only the preserve of non-corporeal Gods, it is the Love �that cannot speak its name’, the Love of the pure Knights of King Arthur.

Does any other animal on Earth experience Love as we humans do? Since we are animals as well, and we respond to all the same basic needs as other animals, self-preservation, eating, mating and so on, it is likely that other animals also feel Love. It will never be possible to prove the contrary, but an indication of Love in animals may be given by their pre-mating behaviour: hares prancing and skipping, mammals puffed up and strutting, birds collecting and displaying bright objects as �gifts’ to their intended, these are very like the courting behaviour of humans when Love is in the air. There may be many swans in a flock, yet a pair selects each other permanently and exclusively for life. It is unlikely to be arbitrary; they each do it from preference. Celibacy can follow from the death of a swan partner. This all sounds very much like Love. Also supporting the assertion that Love is experienced in all higher animals is cross-species Love. A cat or dog is loved by its master or mistress, and dogs can certainly give every sign of returning that emotion.

Back to mankind, which has, over the generations, developed a complex social arena in which the subtle nuances of relationships have become ever more obtuse and difficult to identify and rationalise. No more cave-man clubbing. Some anthropologists have spent their lifetime and earned their living by studying the human being and its complex social behaviour, comparing major parts of it to the behaviour of primates and other creatures throughout the animal kingdom. These researches are all very valid and are important mainly because they help to highlight the aforementioned reality: that we are subject to the same natural influences, like the need to survive and reproduce. But it has sometimes been assumed that no other creature can Love as we humans because of the perceived lack of sentient ability. Well, it may be true that to recognise the existence of Love, and to label it, may take an intellect that is only found in us humans. To extend that thought to the point of saying that other creatures cannot identify Love as we humans, is like saying that the creatures do not suffer hunger or pain, simply because they cannot name it.

A bird that finds a new tree laden with its favourite berries, all ripe and ready to eat, would say, �Excellent,’ if it could. You do not need language to feel the pangs of hunger any more than you do to feel Love.

The main difference between the other animals and us is that while we might all feel Love, we are the only ones who study, research and debate it, sing about it or agonise over it вЂ" that is our prerogative.

There must be some mechanisms at work that make us Love; some anthropological influences that dictate that Loving is a good thing to do. There is the need to reproduce, and having some desire for another person is vital to that process. There is the need to protect our young, which, too, shows the benefit of Loving. There are many examples that can be described to show the benefits of Love, but unlike other conditions, such as hunger, for example, вЂ" the physiological causes and influences of which are clearly understood вЂ", Love is very difficult to identify and quantify. As the most powerful of the emotions, with the perversity of nature, it may be expected that its roots are the most subtle. Indeed, this is assumed to be the case, but does the truth about Love need to be so evasive?

Perhaps we are blinded to its reality. Because of Love’s pandemic influence it is not easy to isolate and get to grips with Love. Like a fog, it can be upon us before we realise it. Once we recognise it, we think we can see it clearly, yet we can hardly see it at all for what it is. Like the fog, Love colours all that we see вЂ" all that we see, now, less clearly through its tainted light. We are partially blinded by Love, but maybe Love need not obscure our vision if we could take out the catalyst for all of Love’s troublesome influences вЂ" emotion. Then we could isolate Love, distil it and define it or, at least have the choice, should we wish to look rationally upon Love.

Do I hear a cry of, “But that is what Love is, emotion. Without emotion, there is no Love!”? I can sympathise with that, but it is exactly that view that causes the confusion and distress. It is true that emotion fuels Love, just as petrol/gas fuels the internal combustion engine, but neither was the creator of the force. They merely drive it along. Sticks and emotion kindle their fires, but neither creates the spark of ignition.

So what is the source of ignition for Love, the match that gets the flames going? Well, it is not emotion; that comes after. Perhaps we need to look at some other basic instinct for the answer.

Every human has to learn about the natural as well as the social world, and for a child, when the learning is the most intense, there is a heavy reliance on adults to provide the guidance and teaching. Learning never stops throughout life and, although we rely less and less on our peers as we become wiser or more stubborn, we