Love being abstract

[shadowofman]

I think this counts as spiritual?

 

Concerning love, are there different types or is love really all the same?

I believe love is all the same.

 

Is it black and white? On and off? Or is love a scale? A series of degrees of love?

I believe love is a series of degrees of altruism.

 

For instance, I believe that the love I have for a friend is the same love that I have for a "lover", but to a much lesser degree. Therefore love is not sacred, but it is real. It's the same feeling I might have for family, except I really don't want to spend so much time with my family because I don't love them as much as I love my SO.

[shadowofman]

I thought of an analogy.

 

All love is like water. It exists in different degrees of excitement from hot gas, to a frozen solid. A typical person might love their children like steam. Might love their H/W like boiling water, or like room temperature water as their personal impressions of them change over time. The love we have for friends or any other given individuals might increase or decrease in energy over time. But the point is that all love is relatively the same in molecular structure.

[Malenfant]

I understand where you're coming from, but I dont agree.

For me, love is different depending on who its directed at.

 

I love my H and I love my mum, and I would never say that I love one or the other to a lesser degree.

[knaveman]

I thought of an analogy.

 

All love is like water. It exists in different degrees of excitement from hot gas, to a frozen solid. A typical person might love their children like steam. Might love their H/W like boiling water, or like room temperature water as their personal impressions of them change over time. The love we have for friends or any other given individuals might increase or decrease in energy over time. But the point is that all love is relatively the same in molecular structure.

 

I like that. All love comes from the same place, it just takes on different forms.

[shadowofman]

I love my H and I love my mum, and I would never say that I love one or the other to a lesser degree.

 

So might it be safe to say that you love your mother and your husband to the same degree, but the love is still the same. The difference between your relationships with them are in non-love contexts. Like you are physically stimulated by your husband while that idea is repulsive in relation to your mother. But these conditions are independent of the love you have for them.

[FryFish]

The way I love bacon/chicken sandwiches is not the same way I love my mother is not the same way I love a girlfriend.

[shadowofman]

But in the brain, the same chemicals are influencing your actions and feelings. So technically they are regardless of the environmental factors outside the brain. You might even love bacon sandwiches more because they don't judge you.

[climbergirl]

I believe love is a series of degrees of altruism.

 

I agree with this. We can 'love' mankind, but how much we sacrifice of ourselves is directly correlated to how much (degree) we love that person.

 

It's the same feeling I might have for family, except I really don't want to spend so much time with my family because I don't love them as much as I love my SO.

 

Don't agree with this so much. I think the motivating factors to spend more time with your SO has more to do with primal instincts than love.

[christiw]

Love is abstract like wind..Its a beautiful feeling that you can not see, can not touch but you just feel it. Without love there is no life, It is just a meaningless existence on the earth. This is a feeling which varies from person to person..as your love for your mother is different from the love for your spouse.

[Feelin Frisky]

I think this counts as spiritual?

 

Concerning love, are there different types or is love really all the same?

I believe love is all the same.

 

Is it black and white? On and off? Or is love a scale? A series of degrees of love?

I believe love is a series of degrees of altruism.

 

For instance, I believe that the love I have for a friend is the same love that I have for a "lover", but to a much lesser degree. Therefore love is not sacred, but it is real. It's the same feeling I might have for family, except I really don't want to spend so much time with my family because I don't love them as much as I love my SO.

 

Love is subjective. That's why it's so hard to know what to say or do tosupport a friend who has been shattered by a love experience. Lots of questions need to be raised:

 

- did you really "love" the person you lost or did the bubble burst on your delusion when you found out that the real person is not the person you idolized?

 

- did you betray yourself by unbridling emotions that were not yet warranted?

 

- Did you keep a sense of detachment to land on your feet if things went wrong or did you set yorself up to ridicule by giing your partner a level of trust he or she did not earn?

 

- were you considerate enough to honor their need for space and freedom or did you make it all about you"?

 

- did the other person give you proper signs of their feelings and boundaries or did they just leave it all for you to fill in the blanks?

 

It's a real bitch second-guessing yourself but it is necessary to grow and conserve the whole love thing until it seems genuinely mutual, Even then, be careful of betrayal. Establish a single identity you can sustain and don't think you can suddenly become someone else--perhaps being less ambitious, less clean, etc.

[deux ex machina]

I think this counts as spiritual?

 

Concerning love, are there different types or is love really all the same?

I believe love is all the same.

 

Is it black and white? On and off? Or is love a scale? A series of degrees of love?

I believe love is a series of degrees of altruism.

 

For instance, I believe that the love I have for a friend is the same love that I have for a "lover", but to a much lesser degree. Therefore love is not sacred, but it is real. It's the same feeling I might have for family, except I really don't want to spend so much time with my family because I don't love them as much as I love my SO.

 

I believe that love between human beings is rarely entirely pure. Other emotions tend to coexist with it -- surprise, anger, sadness, joy, ect.

 

The basic emotion of love will be there, yet the blend of emotions will give each love its own unique complexion.

 

The other emotions can have little influence, or amp it up, making the love feel more true or pure. Yet another mix of emotions, blended with love, can make it feel much more complex.

 

In that sense, I believe that there are different types of love.

Edited May 28, 2010 by deux ex machina

[Eeyore79]

I love my mother, my father, and my boyfriend. I wouldn't say I love one more than the others, but I don't love them in the same way.

 

I definitely have more trust in my parents... my bf could get another gf, but my parents can't get another child. So I guess I feel more secure with my parents... their commitment to me is not a choice like my bf's is. Maybe the fact that he chose me makes our relationship different

 

I have a physical relationship with my bf that I obviously don't have with my parents; I share things with him that I wouldn't talk to my parents about, and in future I'd hope to share things like children with him, which I could never share with my parents in the same way. In a day-to-day sense you're obviously going to be closer to a partner than to a parent... as you get older you grow away from your parents and towards your partner, and hopefully your partner should still be there for you after your parents are gone.

 

I think it's mostly the same in an emotional sense though, although you might feel more secure with a parent because they can't replace you. A partner relationship has an added physical element though, which is the main difference

[Shakz]

This may sound like a series of stupid questions but I ask them because I have never recieved satisfactory answers: What is love? Is it a distinct emotion, or a psychological state resulting from a combination of separate emotions? Is altruism love at all? A person can be dispassionately altruistic, so where does love enter? Or is love not emotional at all, but an action entirely dependent upon the will? Describing what love is always seems more difficult than describing what it is not. Why is this?