What is Love?

What is Love? How does one define the feelings of love? Since the beginning of time humans have tried to satisfy an accurate description and all fall short. No words seem to capture the true meaning of love. It’s as if our language is too limited to adequately describe such a profound thing as love. I’ve decided that today I will share with you what I believe true love is…to the best of my ability.
Love is an all-encompassing emotion, which grips you from the surface and digs its nails deep into your soul. Love is unconditional, and therefore cannot “die”. If you feel that your love for someone has died, you never loved him or her. Love has no stipulations, and therefore will not alter negatively no matter what the other person does. You can always love someone more, but never less. If you find yourself loving someone less, you never loved him or her, but were simply infatuated. Love is self-less, and therefore you will find yourself caring more about your lover more than yourself. Personal gain is no longer an object of attention. Love outweighs any other emotion without fail. No amount of depression, anger, happiness, or other simple emotion can overpower the feeling of love. Love is not obligatory. If you love someone simply because “he’s my son” “she’s my cousin” “he’s my father, of course I love him”, I’m sorry to inform you, but this is not love. This is simply obligation. Love does not feel pity. Sympathy and love do not go hand in hand. If you feel love simply because “How can I not love her? She’s so helpless, I just want to give her the world”. This is also not love. This is sympathy. Love is greater than man, greater than god, greater than anything possibly imaginable to the human mind. It delves into depths deeper than we could ever hope to explain. Love has been known to cause temporary insanity, which may lead to more permanent situations. “She killed herself because she realized he didn’t love her, and never could”. Love has a mystical veil around it that most of us cannot understand. “My father died yesterday, and after two hours of endless crying, my mother died beside him”. Love cannot be explained. All attempts to explain the ‘whys’ of love are futile. “I love her because she is beautiful”, “I love him because he understands me”. This could never truly describe WHY you love someone. Particularly because they are all shallow statements associated with personal gain, which love does not associate with. Love is complex; it is such a wonder that in the English language we’ve attempted to use such a word to describe every facet of love. You can love peanuts, and you can love your husband…only in English. Love lowers the ego, but heightens ambition. Love is the only emotion that can truly have you appreciate life, and at the same token despise it…assuming it is reciprocated or not. Unreciprocated love is by far the most painful experience a human being can endure, and this is where fear and jealousy come in. Once a person has fallen in love, the fear that their love is unreciprocated triggers jealousy fear, and resentment. Love cannot be stopped or accentuated by means of third party. The feeling of love itself is the sole entity that can grow on its own. You cannot force love onto a person. It is the only emotion that cannot be inflicted or simulated. It can only be felt only on its on terms. This is the best I can do to describe love with the limited words I have. Here are some famous quotes for you to digest.
“No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?” Albert Einstein
“A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea.” Honore de Balzac