What do you believe about love?

WOW. I could write an entire book about this. No promises to be brief this time.

I believe there are several different kinds of love. Family love, friend (platonic) love, romantic love, and "miscellaneous" love come to mind.

• Family love is usually unconditional or very near it, and the people involved don't necessarily have to be blood relatives. I argue that it is the strongest love force in our lives, as well as essential. People who have not experienced family love are usually worse off in general, and have a hard time experiencing other types of love.
  
• Friend (platonic) love always has the potential to turn into romantic love. It's a very strong kind of love but a little more bound to conditions, a little more fragile than family love. Friend love also involves a strong element of defense, as in "If anyone or anything tries to hurt this person, I will defend him/her as long as I possibly can." There is a lot of compassion in friend love.
• Romantic love is even more fragile than friend love. I think a good amount of friend love is necessary in order to have successful romantic love. Romantic love without friend love isn't love at all, it's usually lust or infatuation. Romantic love also usually involves a bit more compromise, sacrifice, needed communication, and general work to keep it going.
• Miscellaneous love includes things like "I love this song" or "I love to snuggle," as well as crushes or attractions (physical or mental) to others. Miscellaneous love sometimes has the chance to develop into other kinds of love if given room to grow. However, alone, it is the weakest force of love, the most apt to change or be damaged, the most conditional.
  
  • The only exception to this is the subcategory of universal love, the kind of worldly compassion that is usually fueled by a belief in interconnectedness and helpfulness. That can be a very strong force in those who concentrate on cultivating it. This subcategory also contains the "religious" kind of love, the love that many feel comes from God or another benevolent higher power.
    

And no, I didn't plan on putting them in order... they just kind of turned out that way.

Other things I believe about love:
Love is necessary, essential for a happy and fulfilled life.
Love is a powerful healing force.
Love is recognizable. You know when you feel it, and you know when you see it alive and well in others.
Love is something that, when exercised, helps us grow as people.
Love is at war with hate, and will forever be. Only love can conquer hate, but hate can be equally as strong as love. And the battle rages on.
Love is limitless; it can always keep growing, and if for some reason you feel it stop, it means you are losing it.
Love is refreshing, enhancing, protective, comfortable, and liberating.
Love is challenging and can fall apart if not tended to.
Love of any kind can exist between any two people, no matter their gender.
Love is personal. It's one of the few things we truly own, that does not some way belong to something else. My love for you will always be mine, and no one else can have it.

That's about all that my brain is going to dump right now. I could elaborate on each one of those points, but this is the SparkNotes version of my beliefs.


Namaste.