LOVE‏?

Love – something that is almost delusional. What is love, really?

If love is passion - love at first sight, then love cannot last for long – because human nature is not designed to carry on passionate love forever. After the hot and steamy initial period, life returns to its routine and the brain returns to its normal state of mind. Each person no longer goes out of his way to impress, instead returns to his comfortable shell. Love making transitions from the consequence of passion to satisfaction of sexual needs. It is only understandable, for who is able to retain those butterfly feelings in one’s stomach, the anxiety of uncertainty, and constant displays of one’s best behaviors ceaselessly? If passionate love is what one desires, one can live his life moving from one lover to the next once the passion has faded. Such type of love is perhaps designated only for artists with continuous craves for passion.

The idea of short-lived love with one partner is perhaps disheartening. What is love then, if love is to last forever? Ah, thus the notion of love as companionship and compatibility. He makes you laugh. You can carry a conversation together. You share similar values toward money, religion, children, life style, etc. Love means understanding, compromising, and sharing responsibilities. Love means settling and withstanding – as that is the only way for one to be able to love another forever. This type of love does not make literature, because it is not romantic. It is realistic.

This type of love is not at all too difficult to find. The majority of people with similar education background who live in the same society tend to share similar outlooks toward the everyday important mundane. Certainly, there are differences because each person grows up in a different family with slightly different values and customs. However, these differences are those which call for understanding, compromising, and withstanding. Next time, take a look at your workmates, your neighbors, or your schoolmates, and count those whom you absolutely cannot put up with? Chances are that there are only few.

You are told to marry for love. You are told to find your other half. But really, does there exist the one person who completes you? If that person is someone whom you love passionately, your love won’t last forever. If that person is someone who is compatible with you, there are tens of others who can also be your companion.

Perhaps marriage is not about finding your perfect one. It is about your mental state. Once you are ready to settle down and compromise, you are ready for marriage. The journey of finding someone to get married to is not the hard part. The workload really resides in changing your state of mind.