definitions of love
I have loved a lot of people in a lot of different ways. But that word! As a word it is at once limiting and boundless. I never know if I’m using it or thinking about it correctly. In English we can love coffee or we can love our dog or our grandmother or cock or a boy or a girl or a subject in school or ourselves. We can make love to them or take care of them when they’re sick or want the best for them or treasure their existence or buy them every week or any multitude of things. It can be all-consuming or it can hurt or it can be beautiful and calm, it can take any form and be anything.
But it’s all based on assumption. It’s based on inflection or context. I don’t want to look at fifty definitions for a word. Sanskrit has ninety-six different words for love. If you needed a specific term, it’ll be there.
But in English we throw it around. I can say that I love French onion soup or Neil Patrick Harris or the color burgundy, but I can’t fuck any of those things with satisfying results. I could say that I love someone but I’d have to describe it in order to make them understand. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, communication is good, but that’s difficult sometimes. I’m not sure if I always understand my emotions, at least not in a way that adheres to a terminology, because I know that my emotion falls into the wide, wide bracket that is love, but I don’t know exactly what societal version it should be.
And I guess you could also say that a word that’s too specific would be limiting. But when it’s too broad, it just feels cheap.
(via aimmyarrowshigh)
