text; anonymous

[peninhand]

Hello. I have a question for all the Lost Souls:

What is love in your reality?

To be more specific, I am talking about the kind of love you find between two lovers. I realize how strange this question may sound. But this is very important to me and I would appreciate it if as many people as possible could reply to this with serious answers.


PS: please don't reply with a link to Haddaway's song.

Comments

text; un: anon

[getting_better]

You're gonna have to clarify a little bit more. Love is already a vague enough topic as it is.

[peninhand]

I am talking about romantic love. The kind that exists between two people who feel romantic feelings for one another.

Text; un: anon

[localweirdo]

What is love in my reality? How about I express it in a poem?

I want to be your love for ever and ever,
Without break or decay.
When the hills are all flat,
The rivers are all dry.
When it thunders in winter,
When it snows in summer
When heaven and earth mingle,
Not till then will I part from you.

[...Take that however you will.]

[peninhand]

[ What is she even supposed to get out of that reply? Why can't people just answer her very simple question? ]

This is a beautiful poem.

Is it expressing you believe love to be something that continue beyond death and the end of the world?

text. un: shin.o

[mindthebass]

you read my mind...

[peninhand]

I beg your pardon?

un: midnightmocha

[nerine]

"What's love, but a secondhand emotion?" 😛

Text - UN: Anon

[swordofhisou]

[Fuss fuss. Hmmm. How to anon... did she care to anon? Right, how to anon.... Hey, you, youkai? Tell her how to 'anon!' ... please? A half hour later, she'd figured out how to post anonymously and did so.]

I mean, is it different in different worlds? If you fall in love with someone, you've devoted yourself to them. And you want to be with them. I've never really fallen in love. Gotten really attracted before, but I don't know that I've been in love yet so I'm not sure I am a good source.

I'd like to try though, I think. It'd be an adventure.

[peninhand]

I would like to try as well. However, much like yourself I do not know whether I have ever been truly in love.

In my very limited experience, people disagree on what counts as love. Sometimes you do things out of what you think is "love," but to another person it is nothing close to love. I don't trust myself to properly judge whether something counts as love or not. That's the reason behind this post.

Take the devotion you mentioned, for example. It varies a lot from people to people what they believe is "love" and what they believe is "weird" or even "too much" when it comes to devotion.

un: anon

[kikuichi]

I've never fall in love before. But what I saw were many couples who made the best of their situations. Or they simply can't be together for a number of reasons.

[peninhand]

[ Are you kidding her. Why are the only answers she get either troll posts or depressing as all heck? ]

The way you are wording it make it sound like couples can't really make it.

text; anon

[peacewithouttyranny]

We have a name for them. They are called Conjunx Endura, or affectionately Junxies. Lifebond partners who are deeply in love and devoted to one another.

I have not experienced 'love' myself, but I have seen plenty of Conjunx Endurae in my lifetime. Usually they are inseparable.

Re: text; anon

[peninhand]

[ What's that? An actual answer? That makes it two! 33.3% rate so far. ]

That sounds beautiful. Similar to the concept of wedding in many worlds.

So there is no problem with them being deeply in love and devoted? Are there limits to their devotion? Back home the "devotion" part tends to be pretty limited and even shunned when it's what people deem "too much."

text | un: tequila sunset

[horrifictie]

darkness.

[peninhand]

Insightful.

[ Who knew the internet in this world was even worse? ]

TEXT| un: kittenwhiskersofsparklinglove

[lovebreathing]

Love is wonderful!

I can’t say I know a lot about what it’s like between two lovers specifically, since I’m not the most experienced… but I think it’s rooted in acceptance, and caring for each other! When you smile easily, and never get tired of being together…

Does that make sense?

[peninhand]

[ That's... That's someone who is enthusiastic about love? Who is not trolling? Oh goodness...! It's like a breath of fresh air amidst this absolute disaster of a post. ]

It does make sense! Honestly, I feel the same about it. If you ' don't accept them and get tired of them, it's not really love is it? I think it's the most beautiful of all emotions.

I just get a bit worried, sometimes people seem to think certain of those things are weird or even dangerous... So I really want to know what people call love in their world and what's expected before I try anything again.

un: midnightmocha

[nerine]

"Love is a many splendored thing."
"Love lifts us up where we belong."
"All you need is love."

Sorry, you never said no Elephant Love Medley.

[peninhand]

[ That's the reply when she snaps. The internet sucks no matter the world. ]

You know if you're not going to contribute to the conversation, you're free to scroll by and post elsewhere.

I'm sure you don't mean it, but memey replies to something that important to me, it kind of hurts. Unless you are purposefully trolling, in which case you got what you want I guess.

text | un: anon

[muitenpen]

[A question Mahito's had for a while, as well, and never truly found a satisfying answer to. Even looking over the other responses here, is any of that right?]

It's something that blinds people, so when they're hurt, they don't realize they should feel wronged.

They're all obsessed with it, but I don't get it either. Isn't something you "love" just something you want for yourself?

[peninhand]

Well yes. But if the person you love doesn't love you back, then you have to let them go. It's when the love is mutual that you love finds it true beauty.

But the way you make it sound, it's nearly like you think of love as something people simply use to hurt less...

[ ... And that hits a tad too close to home. ]

text; un: UMAI

[enbashira]

Anonymous, is it! Interesting!

Might I ask what love between two lovers is in your reality, first?

[peninhand]

It's a bit of an embarrassing topic to speak of so openly, so I figured anonymity was for the best.

Well. I'd say it's absolute devotion to one another. Accepting of who you both are and helping each other as needed. It's putting your love above all else, even should the entire world tell you it's wrong.

[text] UN: tamamori

[fuckdogramagra]

Soren Kierkegaard wrote, "Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see."

In short, love is patience and acceptance brought to their most complete conclusion; being able to know a person as easily as you know yourself, and not rejecting their worst parts. I'm not sure if quoting my betters is helpful, but it's what has stuck with me for many years.

[peninhand]

I am familiar with a few of Kierkegaard's works but I had never read this quote before. It is very beautiful and helpful.

Thank you. I think it's the most hopeful answer I have had to my question.

If that is what love is like in this reality, then I have reasons to hope.

text, un: "azem"

[conceptreview]

Hmm. A bit of a broad topic, but I shall do my best to answer earnestly.

Do you mean, how do you know if what you feel is love? Or, what is the definition of love?

[peninhand]

A bit of both.

I have felt what I thought was "love" once, but now I am not so sure. And I know from experience people from different realities may assign very different values and ideals to the word.

text; un: sangria

[breweries]

Love is what drives wizards. We cast magic with our hearts after all, so we can't help but adore love in all forms, no matter how twisted they can appear on the surface. We don't merely fall for another, but also with animals, the stars, the sea, the very concept of it.

And thus I don't think that one should limit it to a mere love for someone else. Love can be a form of fear or hatred of one another, and can be the opposite side of a single coin. Whichever form they take still counts as love, and therefore shall be cherished as one does to a growing flower that is beginning to bloom.

[peninhand]

Are you a wizard?

[ That's kind of what it sounded like, right? Of course, that means she's totally picturing her interlocutor as looking just like Gandalf. ]

I do think your definition of love is beautiful. And I do very much agree that no matter the form it takes, love should be cherished.

But doesn't romantic love exist in your reality? The sort that binds two people to each other?

text; un: fushiguro

[mahoraga]

It's just dopamine and other hormones, isn't it ... That's what I've read.

[peninhand]

Everything can be reduced to how how brain works.

But that's a boring way to see life, don't you think?

text; un: ursamajor

[beariot]

Well, love can take a lot of forms, I'm sure you're aware, but even when we consider a relationship between lovers, there's still a lot of variations.

It can vary from committed, married couples to people who just care a lot about one another but never fully become "together".

[peninhand]

Yeah, that's more or less what I gathered from all those answers...

There's no way love could be described in such short replies. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Well, I wasn't really thinking when I posted this I think.

text: anon

[perfectdistance]

That's different from person to person. Doubt you're gonna get two of the same answer.

[peninhand]

The replies I got so far are indeed all very different.

I was annoyed at first, but now I find it somewhat heartening. Perhaps I am not as hopeless as I feared to be.

un: hunter

[notched]

don't know. i wasn't very good at it.

[peninhand]

Guess I'm not the only one, ahaha...!

text; un: jsarchivist

[eyediot]

It depends on the individual. People view it differently and attach different ideals to it.

For myself, it is an anchor. Hope. Brightness. Something I would hold on to for as long as possible and was willing to die for.

Text, un: swordsss

[swordhardy]

Pledging eternal commitment … not that I’ve ever felt that way before.

Or it’s when someone can do everything that annoys you, but you don’t find it that annoying when it’s them doing it.