“Its a difference from loving somebody and being in love with somebody. You can love anybody. but when you in love with somebody, you looking at it like this: you taking that person for what he or she is no matter what he or she look like or no matter what he or she do. You might stop being in love with them but you is not going to stop loving that person.”
- Musing of a young girl on the track “Doo Wop (That Thing)” By Lauryn Hill. (Oh and question asked in the title there was posed by the young girl’s teacher)
So I was listening to this song (excellent! Lauryn Hill is also a genius) and I heard that….it really did get me…I mean is that really, just down to the bare bones, what love is? It does make a lot of sense anyway. Love isn’t suppose to be objective in anyway.
Even with the original concept from the beginning of time, love is considered just that. I think that with love, we are the closest thing to being Gods. Wow, thats a big claim to make right? Well no its not. Look at it this way: The original definition of love is just the bond between two sentient beings that transcends all other feelings. The creation of humanity at the hands of God was a product of that transcendent feelings that God held in such regard. God is THE design of love (or at least in the original religious ideal), therefore, being made in his “image” we are the product design of that same love. No other Earthly creature can share that same feeling of love that we all feel. So its just me, you, and God. That idea of love is what makes us closest to being equal to God.
(Oh and don’t get me wrong I’m not adoring or supporting God here. Personally I think he’s an idiot sometimes, laying out his “plan” for us when we all know there isn’t one….a rant on that is for another time)
You know, i never thought of it that way….I’ve heard that love is a truly powerful force, but I never realized it could really be that powerful. In a sense that feels terrifying…I mean sure we don’t have like extreme superpowers of creationism like God, but being able to share a sentient feeling that only God feels (well beyond us that is)? It feels a little weird thinking of it in that sense.
“Okay, alright. Do you think the t.v. and music and all that have something to do with it? About people being confused about love?”
-Question Posed by the Teacher on track “When it hurt so Bad” By Lauryn Hill
Anyway back to the question….”Do you think you too young to really love somebody?” To tie it together…are we all too young and naive to really understand this concept of love? Love has become so shrouded and mystified in common culture, so influenced by popular ideal that its hard to find what it really means anymore. I know so many people that watch movies like “The Notebook” and “A Walk to Remember” or some other ridiculously cheesy love movie/show (korean drama much?)…and they idealize that form of love rather than actual watch it for the fact that it is a movie. And it makes me feel bad for the rest of society because in a sense, that storybook romance can ne’er (<–haha like that pirate talk?) be achieved! It evokes a particular standardization within our community, about how love should be! We all want that little, lovey-dovey I’m-on-the-boat-with-lover-then-the-boat-flps-over-and-then-we-kiss-in-the-water kind of deal. Sure it makes for great imagery, but is it truly realistic perspective of what we really want? Sure you can say “Well no I’m fine with whatever.” But deep inside, thats not is it? We’re so rooted by society that I think deep inside, more or less, we want to be that kid who stands outside the girls window and plays a romantic proclamation in a ballady style, wailing how much we want her to be our girlfriend. And rightly so there is nothing wrong with that, however my true qualm with it is the question: Is that really what love is? Is love about bending and breaking to get the girl or is love about just the simple and pure connection that we share with someone we have truly deep feelings for that transcends all other feelings, wishful thinking and all?
I don’t know, that on its own is a particularly difficult question to pose because the person who answers must answer without objectivity, without influence from outside sources…and finding such a person in our world who has not been subjected to any sort of shaping and shifting of the idea of love is….well rather difficult if not impossible to find! Each of us, more or less, are effected by idealization of societal views and I think its sad that we cannot escape it. Once it was planted in our heads as to what “love” is, we believed it and I don’t think we will ever forget it.
“Really like love right now is confusion. You can be thinking you love somebody and not really love somebody. Like, I thought I was in love with this girl, but really wasn’t right now. I had to think about it.”
-Musing of a young boy on the track “When it hurt so Bad” By Lauryn Hill
