What is LOVE?

Since this is the beginning of everything, I figure I should start off with a doozy. This is a topic that lays heavily on my mind, and something I've been wanting to talk about for a while.

LOVE

I've come to the conclusion that love is everything. I'm not speaking about the Hollywood, hot pink, devote yourself to a single person-love. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking that. If you found it, that form is a beautiful thing and you're lucky to experience it. What I'm speaking of is so much more than that.

Now you might be thinking, "how can anything be more than finding true love?" The love I'm referring to is much more nuanced, much less constrained by a single definition. What I’m talking about is LOVE. It encompasses ALL, it is the energy that flows through everything, everywhere. It is the driving point of life, and even death.

While I would like this to open up a conversation, please note that I did not pick this topic to begin an argument. I'm aware that my particular point of view is easily debatable, so I ask that you keep an open mind. This is simply the way I feel; it is MY truth. It does not have to be yours, it’s just yet another perspective to consider.

I have noticed that love is not only that dreamy, heart pounding, take my breath away feeling. There are many different forms of love, and not all are considered a "good" feeling. There are forms of love that will make you feel like shit, make you cry, or even cause you to be depressed.

Just because there are more facets to what love is, does not make any of those fragments less beautiful. Love is like people- it comes in all shapes and sizes, each one has its own driving force and, most of all, each one is undeniably special and holds its own place in the universe.

Love is almost never simple when inspected thoroughly. It is a complex emotion, and can become quite confusing if you really think of it. That being said, at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, and with the goal of giving everyone an even starting point, I am going to start off with the most rudimentary (but not widely accepted) definition. Love is ALL.

Now when I say that love is all, I'm referring to the fact that love is the driving force behind every action in this universe. Every emotion is simply an offshoot, a derivative of love. I’ve done countless thought experiments testing this idea, and while this would never hold up as a scientific truth, I've come to the conclusion that every single emotion, when boiled down to its most basic form... Is love.

I'm sure there are a handful of people that are thinking about stopping their reading here, but give me a chance to explain. The most obvious counter argument is the notion of hate. Hate is a very real, very powerful emotion. It has hurt a countless number of people, been the source of suffering of entire races, has been the catalyst for millions of pointless deaths. How do I have the audacity to imply that this disgusting feature of human character can ever be associated with something as magnificent as love? How could I even entertain the idea that murderers, sociopaths, racists and bigots are acting out of anything else but hatred?

I will address that question in a bit, but before we talk about that I want everyone to understand the different forms that love takes. This, like most things I will talk about, are things that we all already know- I just put them into words. For anyone with a family, siblings, friends or if you have ever been in a relationship (so yes. ALL of us), you understand that you always LOVE them, but you don’t always LIKE them. The fact that you love them is completely independent to how you are feeling at the moment.

This underlying connection becomes the driving force in your actions, in your relationship. Because you love this person, your interactions shift. I don't want any of my posts to go on for too long, so I will try to wrap this up as simply as possible. The following will be quick examples of how everything, at it's core, is Love.

In short- That anger between you and your parents? It's there because they love you and want the best for you. That feeling that you wanna punch your significant other from time to time? You both feel that way because of love. The fact that you can't think of an ex without your blood boiling? It's because there was a strong connection of love that has deteriorated over time. But it's still a form of love.

Now, to touch on the idea of hate. It seems obvious that this emotion can have no attachment to what love is. But if you feel that strongly about something, it is simply because you have a love for the opposite of what it represents. A racist hates people that aren't like himself, because he/she loves the idea of everything being the same. You hate a racist because they represent the opposite of what humans should be, accepting and caring, regardless of our physical aspects. In this sense, you must think of what both sides of the coin that you are looking at is. Hatred exists because you love something that can be considered its opposite.

Those are the more obvious examples, now I'm going to give less obvious, more extreme and controversial moments in time. A serial killer murders people because he loves it for whatever reason. In that case, his love for power or blood lust overpowers his love for human life. Even the most evil person in the history of ever- Hitler. Yes, he is disgusting, there is no debating that. But even him, his actions were governed by love. His love for "the master race" overpowered everything else.

I'm sure at this point you get the jist of things. Like i said- this is MY truth. EVERYTHING IS LOVE. It is the source of our actions, it is innate in each and every one of us. Now, I'm not saying that some of us have a skewed definition of love, but that's precisely what makes this world so interesting. We are the physical embodiment of every different path that love can take. It's one of those things that becomes more incredible the more you think of it. When i say " It's ALL LOVE." I mean it. I hope this adds extra depth to my words in the future, I hope that this will be as inspirational to someone as it has been for me. It's been a string that I grasp on to when I feel as if I am falling. When you feel yourself slipping, just remember... IT'S ALL LOVE.

OK, so this is a little extra fun interactive thing that I'd like you all to take part in. I ask you to let your imagination run wild and share any experiences that you felt share this sentiment. Also, for those who don't agree, I'd like you to share examples of ways that this isn't true at all. One of the reasons of sharing thoughts is to start a conversation, and the point of conversation is self discovery. So help me find myself, and in turn, find yourself along the way. Thank you for being present for my first post. I appreciate it, more than you know. Also feel free to suggest things to write about, or ways that I can improve my blog. Much love, and thank you for existing.