"Isn't love a beautiful goddamn liar?"
(The Paris Wife by Paula McLain)
What does it mean to love? How does one define such an experience?
love
/ləv/
noun
: a feeling of a strong or constant affection for a person.
: attraction that includes sexual desire: the strong affection felt by people who have a romantic relationship.
: a person you love in a romantic way.
("love." Merriam-Webster)
Acknowledged for consistency in defining words in the English language and recognized for the validity of such definitions, the Merriam-Webster dictionary has defined the word "love in the simplest comprehensible form for the general public. I applaud their success in such a task as this, however even the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary has failed in defining love itself. Although they have provided an apt and accurate description of the word, love is more than simply that; a word.
What is love?
Love is many things; a word, a feeling, an experience, a simultaneous reason for living and dying. Love is a statement. Love is a subject of its own and subject to interpretation. Love is beautiful, dangerous, exciting, and dull. Love is self-destructive and self-sustaining.
Where is love?
Everywhere. Nowhere. Love is where you leave it. Love is where you look for it. In the eyes of another. In the glow of a sunset.In the darkness of night and the light of day. In the gentle way a child is held. In the tender touch between lovers, and in the pained farewell of two who have temporarily shared the same path. Love is in the first hello, every good morning and goodnight, and every last goodbye.
At its easiest Love is the hardest part of an individual's life. At its worst Love is a beautiful disaster. How peculiar it is to give our hearts to another in hopes that what we feel may be magnified in them.
So what is the definition of love itself?
love
/ləv/
unknown
: love.
6.05.2014
6.03.2014
It's Easy to Romanticize.
It's easy to romanticize. To ignore all rhyme or reason and imagine life to be so different from what it truly is. How simple it is for the human mind to fall into insanity in an effort to protect itself from the harsh realities of the world. How easy it is to depress oneself and entertain the idea that death is easy. That nothing could be worse than this "hell on earth" we call life.
What a selfish thought. What a self contradicting thought. Nothing is worse than life on earth. To fall into nothingness would be to lose oneself, everything learned, all knowledge gained, all gone.
How easy it is to believe death would be better than anything else. That death can solve all of one's problems. What proof do we have that validates the theory that death is easier than life? Where are the testimonials of those lost, gone from this world? Words have been spoken on behalf of the dead to bring despair to the living. To further romanticize such as preposterous an idea as death being the only plausible solution to one's problems. The agony and suffering endured by those who have passed has all but been ignored completely. What right does one have to belittle the pain another feels in an attempt to lessen their own pain?
Skeletons in the closet, demons, battles to fight. All real, ever present challenges for each person one passes on the street.
It's easy to romanticize. To convince oneself that life would be easier in someone else's shoes.
The truth is that the words "life" and "easy" rarely belong in the same sentence. Regardless of religious beliefs, explanations for existence, or any excuse used to romanticize the "ideal life" for oneself, one fact is universally acknowledged:
What a selfish thought. What a self contradicting thought. Nothing is worse than life on earth. To fall into nothingness would be to lose oneself, everything learned, all knowledge gained, all gone.
How easy it is to believe death would be better than anything else. That death can solve all of one's problems. What proof do we have that validates the theory that death is easier than life? Where are the testimonials of those lost, gone from this world? Words have been spoken on behalf of the dead to bring despair to the living. To further romanticize such as preposterous an idea as death being the only plausible solution to one's problems. The agony and suffering endured by those who have passed has all but been ignored completely. What right does one have to belittle the pain another feels in an attempt to lessen their own pain?
Skeletons in the closet, demons, battles to fight. All real, ever present challenges for each person one passes on the street.
It's easy to romanticize. To convince oneself that life would be easier in someone else's shoes.
The truth is that the words "life" and "easy" rarely belong in the same sentence. Regardless of religious beliefs, explanations for existence, or any excuse used to romanticize the "ideal life" for oneself, one fact is universally acknowledged:
Life is hard.
Whether or not a person chooses to believe this is entirely up to themselves, however the fact remains. Once accepted, this fact can help one learn, grow, and develop into the person they wish to become, whoever that may be.
It is easy to romanticize the lifestyle of another. It is hard to create a life for oneself that is "worth living" in one's own opinion.
Both are possible. Both are a choice.
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