What is it?

     What is love? Is it even a definable thing? Scientifically, would love be a solid; something that has a set shape and volume? Or would it be a liquid, with a set volume, but no guaranteed shape? Or even perhaps a gas, which has neither defined shape nor volume. If you look at merriam-webster.com, love(noun) has nine definitions, not counting sub-definitions. Counting all sub-definitions, there are sixteen interpretations. As a verb, love has seven more definitions. Assuming we toss out the definitions dealing with tennis, informal address, and fornication, that still leaves fourteen possibilities with both noun and verb combined. Narrowing further, to exclude all definitions that don't include the words affection, like, devotion, cherish, or concern, we end up with nine definitions. Clearly, this path is not very likely to take us anywhere very quickly.

       So let's try another way. Let's reverse engineer a definition of love from what we know about how people use it. We say I love you to one another when we're very closely tied emotionally. So we could say that love is a term for a close, two-way, positive, emotional attachment. On the other hand we say things like I love baseball, or I love swimming. Activities can't have an emotional attachment to us, so let's say we take out the part about two-way. Then we run into problems. We say I love you to our parents, which is fine, and to our siblings, which is also fine. Yet, when we get older we say it to people we find sexually desirable. Now that's an awkward moment for your Facebook status. You just used a word formerly reserved for your parents and siblings on a smokin' hot babe. Freud would be having a field day. So let's make this situation even weirder. Think about being a member of a team. Part of a unit so close that there is absolute trust. Do you tell the other team members that you love them? If you do then love just got a lot more complicated. Now it's not just something you use to describe close emotional attachment, but also the word for sexual attraction and deep trust, not necessarily at the same time. The more scenarios you come up with, the more addendum's and notations you must make to your definition. 

      Ok. We've busted trying to look it up in the dictionary, and we've traumatized ourselves trying to build a definition from common usages. Maybe the answer lies in the etymology, but my bet is we won't find any really helpful clues there. So there's only one thing left to do. Take a shot in the dark...

      So, let me tell you what love is. Love is what happens when you can't live without something. When you're having a nightmare and it isn't your death, but the destruction of what you love, that wakes you up in a cold sweat. It's when you look at a beautiful sunset at the end of a good day and you realize that the day could have been ten times better, if only the thing that you love had been included in it. It's a mother waking up in the middle of the night to check on her child, just because she had a feeling. It's every time an octogenarian couple wake up next to each other in the morning. As the songs say, it's all around, it's higher than a mountain top, it's a roller coaster, it's all you need, it's a many splendored thing, but I think the simplest way to describe it is this... It's a four letter word.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Well, it has come to my attention that my posts may be too short. Thus, lengthier stories are in order.
Truth be told, I prefer to be brief, but sometimes, some things just need to be long.
    Days should be long, so that you can soak up glorious sunshine. The longer the day, the more sunshine. The more sunshine, the more Vitamin D your body produces. The more Vitamin D you have the more able you are to absorb calcium properly into your bones. The more calcium is absorbed into your bones, the less likely you are to develop some sort of bone or joint disorder. So the days should be long.
   Nights should be long, so that we can do what needs done in the darkness. Get your minds out of the gutter, I'm talking about sleep. The more sleep we get, the less stressed we are. The less stressed we are, the less violent we are. The less violent we are, the less strife (war, genocide, etc) we create. Also, less stress means we live longer. Longer life spans plus less strife equals more innovations into comfort, equality, and the arts. Lets face it, we could all use a few more show tunes in our lives, so the nights should be long.
   Lives should be long. People who know they will live longer are in better control of their urges. People who don't expect to live past twenty do really stupid things. In fact, if they thought they would live past twenty, most of them probably would. Not only that, but longer life spans means a greater chance to find love. Love is a terribly important force in our world. Sometimes people die before they get a chance to really love. In the immortal words of Benedick, "When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married." So lives should be long.
   Just as a warning, these last two are a matter of opinion and occasion. As such they should not be taken as law, but rather taken into stride with a pinch of salt.
   Memories should be long. If we forget too easily, we are doomed to repeat old mistakes. I understand that some things are best forgotten. Some things are best left in the past. But if they are truly to be left in the past, then they cannot be forgotten. As soon as something is forgotten it can reemerge. If something is remembered and reviled, then it stays reviled. Without a memory of how terrible some idea was it is all too easy for someone to resuscitate it. So memories should be long.
    Lastly... Kisses should be long. At least twenty percent of them. Don't get me wrong short kisses have their place (another time another post). But there's something magical about a kiss that goes on and on until it absolutely has to stop. Those are the kisses that you share with someone in the glorious sunshine of a long day. That keep you warm during long nights. That give you a reason to live longer. And they're the kisses that stay in your memories, long after you've forgotten everything that happened around them.
So kisses should be long. If you don't believe me, try it.

-- Random

Lean on...?

 This stick belonged to my great grandfather....

                                                                                 

He leaned on it every day for many years.

Is there something you lean on?

Or do you stand alone?

Please, Stop kidding yourself.

No one stands alone.

When we try, we crumble, and return to the dust from whence we came...

Look at this. This walking stick. It's a trusted companion. It's worn, and battered, knotted and gnarled. It's cracked, it's pitted, and it's scarred. Yet a man spent a very long time leaning on it. He never had any doubt that it would support him. He walked with it through rain and shine, wind and calm. It's just a piece of wood, but it's probably more trustworthy than most of the people you know. Think about it. How many friends do you have that you would trust to balance you, to hold you up in a storm, to never deceive you about the way forward, and to be with you when you were at your absolute weakest? If you have more than one or two, you're either very lucky or very stupid. I hope it's the first. Now think about the flipside of that question. How many people would trust you to do all of those things? I hope your count is higher than mine. And I hope it includes the people you care about the most...

-- Random

P.S.
Please treat all of my posts from now on as free verse poetry.

Behind Blue Eyes...

Consider this. Behind every pair of eyes there is a story. Sometimes many stories rest behind a single pair of eyes. Sometimes, when eyes meet, new stories are born in the space of a moment. Those stories are not fiction. They are memories. They are lives. Whenever two people meet, their stories are changed. Perhaps the change is subtle. Perhaps it is so drastic that the story never returns to its original course. The questions are these: "This person, that I'm passing on the street, or shaking hands within between classes... How will they change my story?" and perhaps more intriguing, "Will I even realize it when my story changes?"

-- Random