Love, It's Who You Know

"Most sacred fyre, that burnest mightily In living brests, ykindled first above, Emongst th'eternall spheres and lamping sky, And thence pourd into men which men call Love; Not the same, which doth base affections move In brutish mindes, and filthy lust inflame, But that sweete fit, that doth true beautie loe, And choseth vertue of his dearest Dame, Whence spring all noble deedes and never dying fame:" -Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queen

Everyone talks about love. It's probably the most over discussed part of life. Who you love, who's in love with you, do you really love this person, how can you tell? Whatever the question, whatever the answer, everyone loves to talk about love and give their advice (which is majority of the time not the best). Either way, what is it really?

 I had a professor ask my class that same question as we were discussing Aphrodite and her false association to love. No one really had an answer. There were a few "well it's a feeling" or "it's when you're being all mushy and feeling all fuzzy". My favorite response was giving by a girl who considered love to be "too materialistic". And she's right, the whole courting ritual is too materialistic. To show that you're interested in someone, you have to give something and assume that you'll be receiving something in the end. But can that really be considered to be love? Or is it really just a feeling of mutual attraction that exceeds the physical? Is it the attraction of a person's personality? Or a mixture between the depth of a person and their shallowness of their exterior? (Why I worded that question as such is a mystery to myself as well)

It seems like there are far more questions than answers for what love is, so how can a person even think themselves to be in love? Some people would simply say, "well, when you know, you just know." That isn't an answer. If you know you're in love, you should know the reasons as to why and know what it really is. Then there's the argument that love means different things for different people. There are different types of love, but for romantic love, I would assume that it means the same for everyone.

I love the quote above taken from Book Three of the Faerie Queen. This is Spenser's definition of love. That is is heaven born, transcending into our mortal bodies, that uplifts us to do "noble" things. He then compares love to lust, calling the latter base. It seems more likely that people lust instead of love. Perhaps I could be wrong, but experience states otherwise. But this still brings me back to the beginning. If we only lust, then how can we love? Is there a way to tell the difference? And if so, then what is love? It always seems to start and end with that question.

Alicia