The dictionaries have been updated. The original definition of love, once upon a time, was to desire and work for the good of other. That was the primary definition with attachments and add ons about feelings.
Poets and writers, media, dictionaries and a multitude of others have changed and hidden the real meaning of love. Love is portrayed as an ooey gooey feeling. That's silly and it's not only detrimental to our mental grasp on sanity, it's insulting to people who think!
Try telling a mother nursing her child through a fatal illness and attending a death bed that love is warm and fuzzy. Go ahead and tell her that she should be "feeling"ooey gooey. The truth is what she is DOING is love. Not only is she truly loving, she is loving to an heroic degree.
To tend a sick child or loved one who is vomiting on your feet is love. Taking the garbage out so someone else doesn't have to do it is love. Cleaning off and warming up a snow covered car on a sub-zero morning so someone else doesn't have to do it is love.
For women, the endless chores of cooking and cleaning and nursing and shopping, in other words housework is love. For men the endless pursuit to provide for his family and keep things in working order is love.
Are there feelings attached to love? Of course there are, but those are feelings aren't love. Feelings were given to us so we'd have a gauge to measure things by. Fear keeps us safe. Emotions have a use. The feelings we have come to accept mean love are given us to encourage us to keep showing love. It's unfortunate that we lost that understanding and we often make decisions based on feelings rather than on logic and reason.
Jesus, dying on the cross didn't feel good, but what He was doing WAS love. He told us, in so many words, that the greatest love is to give up one's life for other. We do that when we DO for others, especially when that doing doesn't feel all that great.
It's a bit sad really that we've come to a place in our society where we actually believe that love is some great feeling that we're supposed to feel. So we buy that and when the *feelings* are overshadowed by the reality of the repetitive tedium of every day life, we move on to find the will of the wisp feeling we have been conned into believing that we're supposed to have.
"What fools these mortals be."
1 comment:
Very much enjoyed reading this: you have a rare particular insight here. Good job!
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