Define: Love

I asked the universe (aka Google) to define "being in love" for me and to my semi-shock, it failed. Google couldn't answer that question. So I asked Wikipedia and they did a little better, offering:

"Love is described as a deep, ineffable feeling shared in passionate or intimate interpersonal relationships."

Still, wanting something more scientific, I scanned further to read about the chemical reactions most commonly associated with love, but lost interest quickly after the title and moved on. I wanted a hard answer. A cold fact. A scientific certainty, but it doesn't really work like that with the big L-O-V-E, does it? So I caved and turned to poetry. Wikiquote delivered some points to ponder in this relativistic quest for definition, wrapped up in warm fuzzies -- in this seemingly fruitless pursuit of the non-existent answer that I seek...

Chew on these...

For those doing the long-distance dance...
"Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones. As the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire." ~ Anonymous

"You can break love, but it won't die." ~ Anonymous
I would add you can't buy it either. The "you break it, you bought it" cliche doesn't work here...

For the noble...
"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave". ~ Mohandas Gandhi

For the nerdy among us...
"Amoris vulnus idem sanat, qui facit.Translation: The wounds of love can only be healed by the one who made them". ~ Syrus Publilius

For the cheesy!
"Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while". ~ The Princess Bride

For those of us who know, those of us who question, those of us who wonder, and certainly for those of us who hurt...
"It's better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all." ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Or so they say...

Hmmm...
"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more". ~ Erica Jong Yikes!

I'm not here, right now, but I understand this. It's raw, real, it grabbed me...
"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love". ~ Neil Gaiman

The soul of compassion is empowered by love...
"I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love". ~ Mother Teresa
My goal is to love like this...

For those of us who freak out, for those of us with phobias and commitment problems, who make big deals out of nothing...perhaps this is what our loved ones would say to us...
"I love you. It's not a weight you must carry around. I love you. It's not a box that holds you in. I love you. It's not a standard you have to bear. I love you. It's not a sacrifice I make. I love you. It's not a pedestal you are frozen upon. I love you. It's not an expectation of perfection. I love you. It's not my life's whole purpose (or your's). I love you. It's not to make you change. I love you. It's not even to make you love me. I love you. It's as pure and simple as that." ~ Anonymous

So, will I ever get the perfect little answer to my question, all tied up with flashy foil gift wrap? I hope not...Here's why...last one...

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity". ~ Gilda Radner

Here's to the delicious ambiguity of life, love, and other mysteries!

Image Credit: http://www.wixel.be/presspix/heart.jpg