"Love" by Carla Vital

Love is defined in the dictionary as an intense emotion or affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or a thing, but it does not explain why we love. Love is a complicated feeling that is hard to describe. Many people experience different emotions, some people feel depression, joy, and others frustration. It is always different for everyone. How do we love? What do we love? When do we love and why? We all ask these questions.

We show love in many forms. For a mother maybe it could be when she prepares lunch for the kids or when she goes to work every morning. For a husband it could be how he stops a bad habit or when he watches “The Notebook” and comforts you afterwards. For a kid it could simply be giving you his favorite toy or sharing an apple juice. We all show and express love in many different ways. Even in many different cultures, they have their own way of showing love. For example in the Irish culture, when a man went away for awhile to go to war or to another place, he gave a women a ring called Claddagh Ring, which was a sign of faith and love. In the Japanese culture, there is a special origami, which creates the lover’s knot. This origami seals a message tightly within, by writing or making a brush mark on the outside so it could be told if anyone else tried to read it because it could never be folded to exactly match afterwards.

In high school, our class had a project about love. The teacher asked many questions about the topic, one of them was if we could love a thing, immediately we answered no. A girl raised her hand and said:

“It is impossible to love a thing, maybe you like it but you can’t love it”

Then a person said,
“Yeah, you can love a thing. Like Oh I love my iPod!”

Then the entire class started arguing about the topic, some said you could only love people because they are living things and have feelings but an object is just something material without any meaning. Others had different opinions, they said maybe you could love something because it belonged to someone special. So, what do we love? Do we love people? Things? Places? Or do we just simply love the feeling each thing gives us?

Often you hear adults say, “You don’t know what love is, you are too young”, but who says what is the right age to know what love is? People fall in love at all ages. When you fall in love at a young age, people say it is not real love because the majority of relationships at a young age do not last long, but there are also many cases in which high school couples have lasted many years together. Therefore, there is not a right age to fall in love.

Why do we fall in love? Scientifically explained, it is because when you fall in love, parts of the brain, which are linked to the reward system that can cause a drug addiction, light up, but there are still many questions about it, which can’t be easily answered. If you ask people, some will say because we need to find somebody to relate to, others because we need the feeling of having security or stability, and others as a way of escaping in to a different world. People are in love with love. An example of this, is how you see on T.V. many dramas based on this controversial topic. Also many songs are inspire by this feeling like, “Nature Boy” By songwriter Eden Abhez, that includes the famous quote “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be love in return”. This complicated feeling is what inspires some of the most amazing creations like songs, paintings, sculptures, etc.

In conclusion love is indefinable. It is a different experience for everyone. People are so intrigue with this feeling because it is something we all feel. Love does not discriminate against race, religion, culture or beliefs. It is something we all experience in many different ways. It can’t be defined by the dictionary, science or religion, because love is complex.