True Love

[Typo Fu Master]

Is this just a concept?

How do YOU define "true love"?

Can it be achieved or does it just happen?

Is it possible to fall out of true love? If so, was it really true love to begin with?



Discuss.

 

[kbate]

Shares the corn afterward?

 

[dolf]

true love?

i'd rather be alone than be with someone for less than that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

'Love' is a nominalization. Its a process folks try to 'thingify' but has no material existance.

 

[Recidiva]

I don't think I realized what love was until I was a parent. At that point I realized that regardless of what my children gave back, I loved them, wanted them to be happy, wanted them to succeed and reach their dreams.

Robert Heinlein: "Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

That's part of the inspiration of my definition, but it's incomplete in itself.

I believe in free will, so I can't force another to be happy or to want me to be a part of their happiness. I aspire to another's happiness. In the case of my children it means I give them the best advice and support I can provide and let them go and do their thing and take no personal credit.

In the case of my husband, I recognize that this person wants me to be happy and I want him to be happy and we work together toward those goals and comfort each other if they can't be reached.

I'd be willing to give my life for any of them. Even more significantly, I'm willing to make sacrifices in the life I live to help further their goals.

 

[dolf]

'Love' is a nominalization. Its a process folks try to 'thingify' but has no material existance.

true, it's just a bunch of chemicals in your brain, there to fool you into bonding. but some people cause those chemicals to fire off inside your skull like nobody else can.

it's the most beautiful bullshit nature ever conned us with.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't think I realized what love was until I was a parent. At that point I realized that regardless of what my children gave back, I loved them, wanted them to be happy, wanted them to succeed and reach their dreams.

Robert Heinlein: "Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

That's part of the inspiration of my definition, but it's incomplete in itself.

I believe in free will, so I can't force another to be happy or to want me to be a part of their happiness. I aspire to another's happiness. In the case of my children it means I give them the best advice and support I can provide and let them go and do their thing and take no personal credit.

In the case of my husband, I recognize that this person wants me to be happy and I want him to be happy and we work together toward those goals and comfort each other if they can't be reached.

I'd be willing to give my life for any of them. Even more significantly, I'm willing to make sacrifices in the life I live to help further their goals.

You say that now but the dears can and do push sentiments hither and yon, and awaken alien feelings in us.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

true, it's just a bunch of chemicals in your brain, there to fool you into bonding. but some people cause those chemicals to fire off inside your skull like nobody else can.

it's the most beautiful bullshit nature ever conned us with.

Like closing time at the tavern! LOVE IS CLOSING TIME!

 

[Recidiva]

You say that now but the dears can and do push sentiments hither and yon, and awaken alien feelings in us.

My daughter's 23, I think I've gotten to know her.

When you say "us" you really are saying "you."

I did my run around like a maniac and do bizarre things and see the world and risk my life and take chances and run a business and be a star...already.

There's not much left to achieve that I wanted to do that I can't refer to as a mental scrapbook.

Family is better than any of the singular achievements I've managed. Sure, I can still achieve singular things, but I have someone to watch a movie with and laugh with while making dinner together when my ego is appeased. I also have someone to hold my hand when I'm in a hospital bed.

 

[Recidiva]

true, it's just a bunch of chemicals in your brain, there to fool you into bonding. but some people cause those chemicals to fire off inside your skull like nobody else can.

it's the most beautiful bullshit nature ever conned us with.

The chemicals are a start, like the flare of a match to start a fire. If you can keep that fire going though...that's up to you.

The initial part is out of your control and can burn out fast. But if you know how to stoke, bank and tend a fire it's an experience that's under your control.

 

[dolf]

my kids are a crime against humanity

 

[Recidiva]

my kids are a crime against humanity

Mine at least started that way. I'm pleasantly surprised with my daughter. My son is yet to be seen, but he's doing well.

I did give birth to humans. Alas.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My daughter's 23, I think I've gotten to know her.

When you say "us" you really are saying "you."

I did my run around like a maniac and do bizarre things and see the world and risk my life and take chances and run a business and be a star...already.

There's not much left to achieve that I wanted to do that I can't refer to as a mental scrapbook.

Family is better than any of the singular achievements I've managed. Sure, I can still achieve singular things, but I have someone to watch a movie with and laugh with while making dinner together when my ego is appeased. I also have someone to hold my hand when I'm in a hospital bed.

It only gets worse after theyre 18. Beyond 18 you have no control and they use the grandkids for hostages.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Mine at least started that way. I'm pleasantly surprised with my daughter. My son is yet to be seen, but he's doing well.

I did give birth to humans. Alas.

Its more accurate to say 'mammals' or 'animals.'

 

[dolf]

children are just people who haven't learnt manners and morals yet.

grim little buggers.

 

[Recidiva]

It only gets worse after theyre 18. Beyond 18 you have no control and they use the grandkids for hostages.

I never had any control. It's the idea of control that's the whole trap.

But it is more interesting and educational and insightful into the human condition than doing it alone.

 

[Recidiva]

I should mention that if you want to do something well, ask someone who succeeds at it.

I wouldn't ask Charlie Sheen how to control my temper.

 

[parodyluvr75]

Love can be hell or heaven, hell only takes one person to make, heaven takes two.

True? For it to be an illusion, it only takes one that doesn't believe.

I've never fallen out of love, my ass remains unbruised. But I've felt it die from a thousand tiny cuts.

And still I'm foolish enough to seek it again.

 

[blobfish]

Love is real in the same way that Ferraris are real. I know it exists and I know what it looks like, but I'll never have it.

 

[Recidiva]

Love is like life in the way that you can't really ask if it's real. It happens and then it doesn't happen. There's no state of always being living or always being loved.

Whether it's momentary or for a lifetime, love is an expression of a state of mind. Unlike life, it can be faked.

But don't make the assumption that if you haven't seen it or it wasn't real forever, that it's always a fake.

 

[Spirited_woman]

Re: Spot on!

I don't think I realized what love was until I was a parent. At that point I realized that regardless of what my children gave back, I loved them, wanted them to be happy, wanted them to succeed and reach their dreams.

Robert Heinlein: "Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

That's part of the inspiration of my definition, but it's incomplete in itself.

I believe in free will, so I can't force another to be happy or to want me to be a part of their happiness. I aspire to another's happiness. In the case of my children it means I give them the best advice and support I can provide and let them go and do their thing and take no personal credit.

In the case of my husband, I recognize that this person wants me to be happy and I want him to be happy and we work together toward those goals and comfort each other if they can't be reached.

I'd be willing to give my life for any of them. Even more significantly, I'm willing to make sacrifices in the life I live to help further their goals.

Recidiva, I find your thoughts on this topic so accurate & also quite beautifully expressed...thankyou.

 

[Recidiva]

Recidiva, I find your thoughts on this topic so accurate & also quite beautifully expressed...thankyou.

You're welcome