Love

 

A friend has asked me to write about this topic... and so I agreed.

It is the easiest and most difficult topic to write about. This is because most have thought, discussed, and experienced it. The accumulated wisdom on this topic from beginning of life to this day must be almost complete if effort is a measure. Today, even the most confused can find easy to follow instructions on wikiHow.

A lot is written about what is true/real/unconditional love. Similarly, dissertations are abound on distinguishing features of loving a significant other vs family member vs an activity. I doubt it's necessary. Love is not the most subtle sensation. It is a jackhammer and most recognize it and its imitators well. It is retrospect that makes us think we were fooled.

One can of course dig deeper than the existential experience and classify it as an obsessive disorder, an addiction or a powerful tool of evolution that has shaped our neurocircuitry. As cerebral as these discussions sound, they are not that far from obvious and seem distanced from the awe love evokes.

As well, with powerful forces, generalizations are highly tempting. It is tempting to assert that all mothers love their children unconditionally, that everyone experiences love the same way and that context is irrelevant. It is also as easy to assume powerful forces like love could be our saviour if we all just believed. These rest on many assumptions.

Love is well above merely a functional process. I see Love as the ultimate masterpiece. Evolution, given the most basic of tools, raw materials and millions of years of ups and downs has sculpted the greatest imaginable piece of art. This masterpiece evokes all emotions in us and other creatures alike, cannot be fully defined and is fully nonfunctional and functional at every level simultaneously.

'Love' by Evolution is in a gallery - and you are its spectator, participant and component. It may be causing you the most fulfilling pleasure or deepest of pains, but it is hard not to admire its beauty.