What Is Love?

I am starting to dissect this word, “love” and what it really represents to me. I think that the very particular type of romantic love that has been sold to the masses is a dangerous and deceiving message. It leads us to the idea that there is one person that can fulfill us in all ways, that will be ready to meet every challenge with us and embrace us to the fullest. This idea of love is painfully romantic and hardly realistic, and I am seeing the repercussions of this mentality more and more. Especially via jealousy. Jealousy seems to be rising in prevalence in relationships around me, I see and hear about it everywhere. “Love” seems to have become such a territorial display, an obsession. It makes me think of Gollum and his Precious; the insanity that overtakes him, his grasping to keep it safe from anyone and anything else. Not only is this need in others unrealistic and damaging, I believe it has a hand in separating us from ourselves. We are led to think there is someone out there to “complete” us, without first being given confidence that we are already whole. Maybe if we already felt whole, we would be more inclined to embrace and honor our love relationships with less possessiveness. Maybe we would understand how healthy it is to not grasp on to people and emotions so tightly. Nothing outside of ourselves is ever really ours. If we realize this from the start, maybe we can understand we cannot lose that which we do not have. This realization can open us up to appreciate what is and what we cannot take with us; that which and those whom we cannot possess, but merely enjoy and be eternally grateful for.

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