What is love?

It's one of those questions, we know takes a little time to answer, but we think we can define what love is...but can we?

According to Socrates and Plato there are 4 types of love;

Eros version 1- Which is lustful and full of desire=sex

Eros version 2- Which is the romantic kind of love

Philia- The love for friends

Agape-The love for humanity; for each other

The love I'm referring to is Eros 2, romantic love. Today in my philosophy of success class, we discussed the relationship of love and success, and is success achieved when you find love? Over the past week we were given sticky notes and assigned to ask five people in our lives to write their own definition of love. When in class we took each definition and taped them to the wall. It was interesting to compare the definitions, and see how different each answer was. All the while still speaking the truth of love.

Some definitions were profound and poetic, others were short and simple, and naturally, there were some that spoke of the hardships and heartbreak that come with love. I think when we are trying to explain what love is ( in a positive manner) the words "unconditional," and "everlasting" seem to pop up quite frequently. Those words are romanticized and used to express the intensity of devotion. But I fear, we have to be careful of what words we use to teach children of what love is. It's unfortunate to say, but I look at cases of young females who are in abusive relationships but cannot turn away because of how we use these romanticized adjectives.

I am not trying to make it piss pour over "love." I very much still believe in a love that can last a lifetime. But what my professor, Wendy explained to us, that if we were all asked to draw a vase, that all of our vases would look different. But they would all be recognizably a vase.

Whether it be an intense chemical reaction, a mutual agreement, or butterflies in your stomach, I think love is when you find someone who has the same definition or a complimenting definition to that of your own.

Examples of Definitions

"To care about a person, more than you care about yourself."

"The perfect union of two souls."

"Unconditional mutual acceptance."

"When your mate let's you eat the last bite."

"A golden wedding anniversary."

"A facade; to be naive."

"Blinded by another."

"To willingly compromise for another person."

And my personal favourite..."The home you find in someone."