/lit/ - Literature

I like to think about what love means, but when people ask me, I don't ever have a concise definition, just a few phrases I threw around a lot when I was stupid and naive and had no idea what I was talking about. I still don't actually know anything about love, except for what I've learned from a few mistakes, and I've probably just very crudely restated what's been much more thoroughly developed by more experienced, wiser people before me. But for my own purposes I wanted to write out what it means to me at this point in my life, since it's central to my goals and my view on it has changed significantly from when I first started thinking about it.

I wrote about 2000 words trying to work out my current definition of love. Like I said, I know nothing about love and I feel like this has been a vanity project restating others' ideas I got from books, though I have drawn from my own very limited experience. At the very least I wrote out my complete ideas and it's something I'll be able to look back on if I ever do gain any significant knowledge and experience of love and see how my views have changed. Reading it back, it all seems a bit trite and obviously comes from someone who's investigating an ideal rather than a lived experience. It was a good exercise, at least

My original definition:
>Love is fervent mutual obsession, eventually manifesting in a lifelong commitment and nuclear family.

New definition:
>This occupation is a lifelong devotion to honestly strive towards fulfilling love’s image; to diligently carry out the spiritual, mental, and physical work necessary to cultivate a connection; to accept freely the suffering our imperfect human faculties bring upon us as we blunder through life’s difficulties together; to, most of all, always trust each other, always respect each other, always hold close to our hearts the loving desires and emotions that we were blessed with, and always cling to our higher ideal and the knowledge that our love is divine