"What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more..." the lyrics to perhaps Haddaway's most famous song. Let's be honest I didn't even know who wrote that until I looked it up. Good job Haddaway, whoever you are!
What is love though? Within my shower thoughts I always come across myself asking this question especially with the saddening events that have happened in Orlando and with the passing of friends lately. I looked up the definition of love on urbandictionary.com in which they define it as, "nature's way of tricking people into reproducing" and when that didn't suffice I took a different approach.
I decided to look at this from a completely etic perspective without bringing politics into it so I asked the innocent question to a variety of people of all different ages. What is love? Here are their responses from youngest to oldest.
-"When you give people kisses!" -2
-"When you like someone and never stop liking them." -5
-"When Mommy gives you a hug and kiss at bedtime." -5
-"Love is when people give you a smile, when they hug and kiss you." -7
-"Love is showing respect for others." -12
-"I would say love is complete sacrifice. It's willing to risk your life or something really important to you for someone else's happiness. But I've never been "in love" so this is just a guess." -15
-" God. God is in everything and you should do everything in life with love therefore everything you do praises God." -17
-"Finding the imperfections in someone perfect." -18
-"I think there's many different kinds of love. Friendship, romantic, familial. Love is when you are willing to compromise. To do what's necessary to make another happy. Not because you are told to, because it makes you happy that they're happy." -36
-"Love is patient, love is kind, love doesn't envy what is not jealous." -43
-"God. Someday you'll find somebody that you'll get to share God with in your own way and that's how you know you're in love. It's the real deal." -55
-"Love is something so strong that if someone hurt someone you love you would kill them." -57
Perhaps Lin-Manuel Miranda put it best during his acceptance speech at the Tony awards, "Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside." The way I see it is a little bit of all the above; there is no one way to describe what love is. All I know is that you have to learn to love yourself for who you are before you can expect others to love you back. You have to decide what love is for yourself. What is your personal definition?
Love is good and that's what we need to spread a little more of in this world; good. Spread love and as the New American Standard Bible puts it, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34 God has definitely loved us, so let's remember to give back and follow that commandment. Even if you don't believe in God, you have been loved by at least someone in life so go ahead and give back. Love everyone.
