There are 97 words for Love in Sanskrit. Each revealing a specific kind of love, like passion or motherly. In the English language we tend to use the word Love to mean lots of different things. We have 22 definitions according to Dictionary.com of the word Love.
For this series I think it is important to create a definition to work from for the deeper and more abstract ideas I will share in future posts. Now, this has not been easy. I wanted a direct and clear definition that would allow me to expand my answer. So after many edits and rewrites I have decided to use the following definition for the bases of this series.
Love: the choice to care about a person, thing or idea, and to act accordingly.
I understand that your definition might be different. And I know this does not encompass all the possible ways that our society uses the word Love. But it is a good definition to build my answer for the upcoming posts.
Let me spend a moment explaining my definition.
Choice
First, there is a magical aspect of love, especially romantic love, but I will write about that later. For this definition choice is the first component. Love is more than feelings. We can choose our actions, our words, and the way we interact with this life.
Care
As an English teacher I knew not to use the word in the definition, so I decided on the word care. This is an umbrella word that allows me to be specific with examples but will transfer well to other examples for you, the reader. I might care about a person’s development, or care about my goals, or care that my child is afraid of the storm.
To Act
Here is the crutch of it all. To act. To practice what I preach. Not easy, but that is for a future post in this series. For now, the most important aspect of this definition is the action, whether it is in thought, belief, or physical behavior, action is important.
Now that I have developed a working definition, the next post will start to specifically answer the question: Why Love?
Share your definition of Love in the comment section or on Twitter with me.
It is all Connected 