Love fails to be consistent holder of a particular meaning, this is because of the complexity of the whole experience which greatly depends on the bond that is nurtured in the persons sharing the experience. The quest towards coming up with a particular definition of love can surely cause continuous pursuits that are unsuccessful because of the difference in the feeling and expression from various cultures across the globe over the years.
The feeling of falling in love is a special incorporation of thoughts, and emotions that brings two people together to share some admirable bond that gives birth to a sense of contentment and having commitment to the partner. Love can be described as all the emotive and cognitive bonds that bind people together.
This piece of writing delves into modern love and Greek meaning, assessing the reasons as to why the feeling of love proves to be a complicated experience and the part played by language in the whole process, from English to the Greeks to unearth the whole meaning.
According to Orwell, Love is a complex set of emotions, behaviors, and beliefs associated with strong feelings of affection, protectiveness, warmth, and respect for another person. Love is not pretentious. And let’s not let ourselves use love as phraseology that allows us to be dead to its actual feeling, instead let it be a word that invokes passion (1995).
Greeks have a complex way of defining love, making it easy to know what kind is being practiced unlike the modern world where love is generalized at times bringing in confusion since people just test the feeling giving great room for casual engagements though at the expense of the uninformed partner who just learns of the sad part later after being taken for a ride.
There were six categories of love by the ancient Greeks:
Eros, or sexual passion
It is named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn't always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. This was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you if caution is not exercised.
Philia, or deep friendship
It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them. (Sometimes called storge, embodied the love between parents and their children.) Greeks valued friendship far more than the improper sexuality of eros.
Agape, or love for everyone
This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers selfless love the main form of Christian love.
Philautia, or love of the self
This meant self-love with two types. One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where one becomes self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune. A nice version enhanced your wider capacity to love where if you like yourself and feel secure in yourself, you will have plenty of love to give others.
Pragma, or longstanding love
It was about making compromises to help the relationship successful over time, displaying tolerance and lenience, the profound understanding that developed among long-married pairs. Brought in crucial aspect of being ready to stand in love not just concentrate on falling in love.
Ludus, or playful love
Referred to the affection between children or young lovers, flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship.
It takes collective effort to have a true love feeling shared between people which is the reason for the promises for long-term devotion, sharing a roof thereby subscribing to the complex process of emotional engagement of the body and mind which if the feeling does not pair the bond is bound to fail.
Feelings may be misleading, giving greater expectations towards how love puns out by first time lovers who may be disappointed along the way but there is need of understanding the process of love as defined in Greeks love classifications just to make sure people understand what they fall into to avoid uncertainties’ by having the full frame of things thereby easier to play for a win in one’s situation.
Various factors affect the feeling of love in different contexts, it is important to note them in order to stop complicating love itself.
Technology
With the advancement in the technological space more complications have emerged in the modern love context as compared to the ancient times where people are more attached to their electronic gadgets which may get in the way of the relationship depending with a partners appreciation of the devices to the time and dedication towards building the relationship.
Indecisiveness
Being in love requires serious thoughts and commitment but the modern world does take this aspect quite in a reckless manner as opposed to the fore years. Playing with the emotions of other people who have given their all to make things works just leads to failed attempts towards love success. A solid decision ought to be made before hopping in and out of relationships that would otherwise have worked with a committed pair of individuals who are serious and know what they want.
The past
Love can take a rough path just because of your or a partners past relationship making every details difficult even if one partner gives the best to make things work. It is advisable to take some time for self-evaluation before committing to another relationship to prevent pulling down innocent partners with baggage from the past.
Things fall in place too fast
In the modern love setting there is a lot of casually walking into affairs that in the near future unfolds to levels not expected by the partner who was not very serious with the relationship. Love manifests itself in various ways and levels and at times it is so difficult to predict the future thereby getting individuals not prepared to hit the next level of love causing pain and harm to innocent, focused which may entirely affect their love life.
Conclusion
The Greek meaning of love was a great way of ensuring the kind of relationship one gets involved in is defined unlike the modern context where “love” stands for undefined way of a relationship giving so much room for making the reckless errors exposing the individuals with good, focused motives to the careless group who are out to experiment, wasting time, breaking hearts and making love so complicated.
Works Cited
Hutt, Lisa Joanne. George Orwell, Politics and the English Language. 1995.
