What is love?

Amanda Matousek

February 2009

What is Love?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.#

Love is madness. When in love, you can't breathe, you don't want to eat, you can't

function. It's the most intense pain that you'll ever feel, and it’s the best feeling in the world. It's unyielding. It never stops, never goes away. There is nothing you can do about it. Love is a force.

We read in Symposium that we’re all looking for someone else to complete us, because the gods split us in half. I think there could be some truth to that. I think we were given two eyes to see, two ears to hear, two hands to touch, two feet to walk, but only one heart, cause we have to find the other that goes with it.

Love is something to be given to someone else. It does no good to you to keep it inside yourself. You have to open your self up, and that’s scary because you’re rendering yourself completely venerable. But if you’re not willing to risk it, I don’t think you want it bad enough.

Love is a relationship. Between two lovers, between a father and son, between a woman and chocolate, between best friends, between God and his creation. Every relationship is flawed, but what makes them worthwhile is when we know they’re flawed, and we still want to be in them anyways. Love is that kind of unification.

Love is complicated. Sometimes it makes you brave, or flawless, and sometimes it makes you stupid and clumsy. You cant define it, you can only experience it. It is physical and metaphysical, emotional and factual. Those who don’t have it, want it, and those who have it, take it for granted.

We cannot explain love. There are many things in this world we can not explain. Hate, genocide, serial killers and terrorists. Discrimination, war. Love is the universe’s way of providing contrast.

#1 Corinthians 13 [abridged]