“Love’s metaphors: soul, madness, practice, and mastery of an art…”
In ancient Greece, there were several forms of love mentioned and discussed heavily about what makes up love. The is storage which is familial love, kinship; familiar; family
On our timeline of history, I see lost values in this area: loss of virtue, respect, dedication, responsibility, commitment, dependability, accomplishment and more disowning, emancipation, abandonment, just too much to excuse anyway. The family should not have gotten to this point and it is unfortunate, IMO. Traditions are being lost I feel and even I am guilty of not making a big to-do over holidays like I did when I was young at my grandparents or at home. It may just be getting older and not having children. I just think a lot is lost in newer generations. That in itself is a claim to my age. LOL!
There is Philia which is friendship. It leads to feeling of self-worth and identity, perhaps; it is a building practice. Eros is another kind of love which has to do with attraction and erotic love. Agape is a self-sacrificing love by putting God or a God first. It is the love in spirituality or within a church as it should have been. aIt is the love of supernatural, omnipotent, omniscient, creator, divine, divinity, grace/punishment (admonishment for purposes of learning a lesson only to become a better person from it.) We give gratitude, pray, get angry at, talk to as friend when no one else is there, depend on God. Finally, there is Xenia, not mentioned much in readings, meaning hospitality It is a ritual coming especially from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey where it was customary to feed, give shelter to and allow visitors to take part in family goings-on. It is a custom-related value I also believe is held less and less by people today. Manners are not a foremost issue for people in today’s world. Emily Post, Miss Manners, setting a table correctly, knowing which utensils to use, chewing with your mouth closed, putting elbows on table, men opening doors for women on dates, paying for dates, actually courtesy, in general, towards public–all of it–is lost to a great degree, especially in larger metropolitan areas.
Our fast-paced world has broken down the family unit: meals are seldom at a table together anymore, people have separated/divorced/abandoned parents, homes are primarily dysfunctional in some way or another, not to say they were ever perfect, but there is a lot more drug abuse, less attention given to children, less mothers at home and more nanny’s or other raising children, less of a lot of the things we used to have and a lot of talking to people however you f((@!@# feel like, verbal abuse, anorexia, bulimia (with commercial female ideals,) less attention at home, physical abuse, alcoholism out of control (think this has always been a problem,) physical abuse that goes unnoticed, and more mental illnesses, especially we see more ADHD coming out with the faster paced lives and more stuff coming at us all the time. It’s becoming too much to take in and we are trying to adjust but children are more agitated, and restless in the classroom and less likely to listen to teachers but be distracted easily. Scientifically, they are finding this more clear and a direct relational cause sociologically and psychologically.
So, on love, we have affinities for things, preferences on things like colors, numbers, activities and hobbies, books, even people we choose to associate and find ourselves with. We usually have a particular affinity for certain subjects, areas of knowledge, places we want to visit, pets we want to have, fragrances we want to wear, places we choose to work (if we are at such luxury to choose-we do choose where we apply and where we do not apply.) It is unfortunate, tragic, sad, even alarming, that some choose fields of work that make money, not because they like the field or are good at it, but they want the money. I understand needing to make ends meet no matter what. Sometimes it is to make exceptional money however, living above ends that meet need and necessity…too many live above their means. When you end up making more money because you love what you do, and of course you do not love going to work, no one does really, but you give for your family first, the needs and necessities, make a better life often even for others, donating more, recycling, humanitarian involvements, you see more of this with people who enjoy the work they do and make good money. I have noticed this in my years of experience in meeting people and for some reason, this seems to hold true to a large degree. You still have your greed, megalomania, misplaced desire, and lust for things you want, selfishly. It is good to spend money to get out of debt when you can if that is a scenario you find yourself in, for personal life improvement. It is not so you can just have good credit but you can enrich your life with things you want that opens doors for yourself in the world obtaining things, material things, like iPad, iPhone, smartphones, Internet, automobiles, homes we enjoy and like living in, clothes that make us feel good about ourselves…
I believe love of people, places, things, just love, in general, can, like anything, be a misused term, and thrown around, too casually by too many. The opinions on why we love who, what, where, is/has been/can be/will be debated heavily for as long as humans want to ponder the issue. Almost all “Good, Virtuous,” valuable in merit thing can be and is too often used in a malintented way or weakened by those who do wrong. But love is a profoundly valuable and precious gift we are fortunate to experience and should nurture it, reap it, give it, enjoy it. It is part of man’s nature that, in his capacity to love, that it is a definitive part of growth in who and what he is, his essence, a defining part of his “soul.” what we truly love and how we love is a larger part of what makes us who we are, uniquely and beneficially to the world around us. Dionysus spoke of love as a growth in us spiritually, mentally, physically, in every possible way. (Read The Phaedrus by Plato) We become better people, we like ourselves better, we are constantly growing and learning, we are Becoming, in the Heideggeresque sense, to get philosophical, though this is profoundly a philosophical issue and has been debated on through the centuries and will continue to be for many to come I’m sure. I did enjoy the explanation I found in the discourse of the play/book Phaedrus by Plato. Please read if you find this topic interesting and worth pursuing more content on it. It is worth the time and it is not that long. Very thought-provoking, however, and the sentences make your brain work overtime a bit. Well worth it though.
There is much more that can be written here, so it may be continued at a later time…
EVERYONE NEEDS A PET DRAGON: read, write, dream 