Defining Love

Defining Love
Love and the Theory of Probability, Frequency and Comparison
Love is in every mouth but what’s it? Like God it is a mystery. Although there is a word for it, its meaning is elusive. Have you ever tried defining it? Maybe its existence in human history is even older than God. Oddly there are countless texts or stories written about something beyond definition. Human partnerships are said to be based on it. Everyday there are new songs about it. Like God it has managed to become part of our daily life and language. No I don’t mean the Love you feel for your mother and father, for your brothers and sisters or your children. Probably this is not Love but commitment, tradition or a sense of duty or being in debt. You will feel guilty if you didn’t “love” them.

But perhaps Love like other human feelings: anger, hate, envy, and jealousy, is a kind of energy or fire you can either use for cooking or destroying. You might have been deeply in love with a partner you can’t stand any more now or find malicious joy in its destruction because you are even more brutal inside. Fire cannot burn for ever. It can be destructive and perish everything that comes in its way even when it is used for cooking and heating.

Love might restrict your freedom because it is a compromise. But sometimes I see some sense in this type of compromise because it makes you dependent on others away from complacence. Seen this way Love takes away the arrogance of saying: I don’t need the others. It brings you back to modesty and social life. But in all likelihood it is a way to your heart through your eyes or stomach which can be very misleading.

Possibly Love can only exist when it is pure i.e. devoid of personal interests. Can something really exist independently? You literally fall in love but rise in hate. Perhaps it is only a business transaction, sexual attraction or gene-driven energy. It can turn to hate, plunge or stop altogether. Some might say it can increase with the passage of time. Probably the semantic components are: affection, enjoyment and romance. But Love seems to be dynamic doomed to die when its energy is consumed. How can it grow? Well, even if it grows there is some evil in growth itself. Don’t forget everything is growing: pollution, population, economy and unemployment. It can make you blind or at least this is what I heard her say repeatedly:

If men only knew what women are like
Thanks God they don’t know Love makes them blind

Or as Ben Johnson put it (my additions are between the brackets):
Follow a shadow it still flies you
Seem to fly it, it will pursue
So court a mistress (a mister) she (he) denies you
Let her (him) alone she (he) will court you

Finally in terms of adverbs/adjectives and modality we can put Love according to its degree of Probability, Frequency and Comparison on a scale of ascending or descending order to mark its progress, trends and change. The descending order reflects or complies more with real life:

Frequency Scale (line) of Love
100% always – usually – often – sometimes – seldom – only – never 0%

Probability Scale (line) of Love
100% definitely – almost certainly – (possibly) probably – likely
may not (might not) – isn’t likely – probably not - definitely not 0%

Comparison Scale (line) of Love
100% Exactly the same – the same as – more or less the same – very like – similar to - Slightly different from – different from – completely different 0%

Jamshid
Bremen, 29.04.2007

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