Define love (what is love?)

Love in it different flavours is essentially the same thing.. ”It’ is a particular emotional state in the brain of the person experiencing love. This state is defined by a particular chemical balance and combined with memories of the subject.In many cases love is also associated with gratification. You love that flavour of ice-cream because you get pleasure from eating it - you tend not to love things that you dislike or don’t get gratification from.You love certain people because you gain pleasure from their company. The stronger the feelings of contentment you get from interacting with that person the more likely you are to profess a level of love for them.There are different levels/types of love because there are many subtle different levels and types of contentment. You love your parents in a certain way because they tend to represent safety, protection and that comforts and contents you in a different way to the way to love your partner, and thus the love is of a different flavour.You love your children fiercely because it’s a hard wired response geared toward protection. Pride, contentment, gratification, protection are what drive parental love.Love is chemical, mental and physical but none the less real as a thing to be experienced.

You dint need to tell me about unrequited love.. I have suffered with at malady for close on twenty years.It isn’t the negative thing you make it out to be. Sure it can hurt like hell sometimes but mostly it’s a towering beacon of strength in my life. A positive thing. Its worse when I’m away from her but even then any contact, mail or IM sets my sprits flying. To hear her laugh in another room is joy I can’t describe. To walk down the street with her hand in mine is contentment it’s self. The simple thought of her can make me happy.Although I know I will never be with her in the sense of partners, my relationship with her is more a source of joy than pain. It gives more than it takes.As to the comments about “I hate your guts” and all that , these are comments usually made in a fit of pique and are usually transitory and of the moment. But don’t forget that we are a complicated and oft twisted creature and for some they derive pleasure form anger and confrontation, they get gratification from the things that are bad for them or deemed ”wrong’In short, if you ”love’ something then there will be something positive you gain from interacting with that thing. Be it your favourite book, film, food, location or person. The different flavours of love are simply a reflection of the thing and the gratification that you derive from it. The emotional high derived from a particularly brilliant segment of a movie or concert will be different than an Ex-Pat Brit discovering a local supply of Jaffa-Cakes, will be different from being around that good friend. It’s all love, and driven by pleasure and gratification and the chemical reactions to those stimuli.