What Is Love?
Paulina Prado
English 250 Tu/Thu
10/5/10
What is Love?
Love is one of the most difficult words to define. I challenge you to try. You can even go the easy way and simply Google the word “love”. What you will find is not one but hundreds of definitions along with countless books, movies, and songs all having to do with love. The reason why it is so hard to define love is because there are different forms/stages of love and there are so many things that love can consist of. Also, love can have a different definition to every one of us. We all have different experiences and different beliefs which play an important role in how we think about love. Love doesn’t just start with the perfect first kiss and end with a happily ever after. There is so much more to it than that, so don’t fall into believing that love happens instantly like in most fairytales. In the article “The Science of Romance: Why We Love” by Jeffrey Kluger, the author describes the stages that a person goes through when falling in love. These stages are important to understand when trying to define what love is and where love takes us. I believe that we use the concept of “love” to get to a stable, meaningful relationship that will eventually lead to marriage. The beginning of any relationship has to involve mutual attraction. Both men and woman look for certain features in the opposite sex. These features may be different depending on the individual but we all have what we like to call “our type”. Once you find someone that you are attracted to, you will notice very quickly that there is a strong craving that begins to drive you towards that other person. This eventually leads to a first kiss. “At the moment of a kiss, there’s a rich and complicated exchange of postural, physical, and chemical information.” (Kluger, Pg. 4) This explanation suddenly adds much more depth to the definition of a kiss. It’s no longer just two lips joining together at the same time. This happens so fast and it
English 250 Tu/Thu
10/5/10
What is Love?
Love is one of the most difficult words to define. I challenge you to try. You can even go the easy way and simply Google the word “love”. What you will find is not one but hundreds of definitions along with countless books, movies, and songs all having to do with love. The reason why it is so hard to define love is because there are different forms/stages of love and there are so many things that love can consist of. Also, love can have a different definition to every one of us. We all have different experiences and different beliefs which play an important role in how we think about love. Love doesn’t just start with the perfect first kiss and end with a happily ever after. There is so much more to it than that, so don’t fall into believing that love happens instantly like in most fairytales. In the article “The Science of Romance: Why We Love” by Jeffrey Kluger, the author describes the stages that a person goes through when falling in love. These stages are important to understand when trying to define what love is and where love takes us. I believe that we use the concept of “love” to get to a stable, meaningful relationship that will eventually lead to marriage. The beginning of any relationship has to involve mutual attraction. Both men and woman look for certain features in the opposite sex. These features may be different depending on the individual but we all have what we like to call “our type”. Once you find someone that you are attracted to, you will notice very quickly that there is a strong craving that begins to drive you towards that other person. This eventually leads to a first kiss. “At the moment of a kiss, there’s a rich and complicated exchange of postural, physical, and chemical information.” (Kluger, Pg. 4) This explanation suddenly adds much more depth to the definition of a kiss. It’s no longer just two lips joining together at the same time. This happens so fast and it
Cited: Kluger, Jeffrey. "The Science of Romance: Why We Love." Time in Partnership with CNN. 17 Jan. 2008: 1-7. Web. 21 Sept 2010. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704672,00.html> “Romance.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 04 Oct 2010. <http://dictionary.com/browse/romance> "National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Office of Information Services, 01/14/2009. Web. 21 Sept 2010. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/marriage_divorce_tables.htm>