I love my computer. I love burritos. I love my cat. I love the Matrix. I love my girlfriend.

I feel very differently about all of those things... I don't have to take care of burritos, or the Matrix, for example. Love of things like that is simple and easily understood : "love" meaning "receive pleasure from." Passive love is easy to define.

"Love" can also be an active thing : providing certain things to the, uh, thing you love. Yeah, yeah, it's a circular definition, but here are some examples :

My cat requires food and affection and being wrapped in a towel and hauled off to the vet now and then, and if I kick her (gently, and only when she gets in my way and won't move) I feel kind of bad.

My computer requires a monthly dusting and a defrag and an occasionally upgrade. I only feel bad if I kick it and break something, and quite frankly I feel bad for myself, not for it.

My girlfriend requires affection, sex, emotional support, intelligent conversation, entertainment, and other things. When I kick her she kicks me back twice as hard so I don't do it. (Disclaimer : Just 'cause I kick my girlfriend from time to time doesn't make me an ABUSIVE MAN like you see on TV all the time. Play fighting is fun!!!)

Someone else toss in their Ũ.02, I'm better at being Devil's Advocate...

In some, it's the pleasure of being next to someone. For others, they need the other person in their mind constantly to even breathe in and out.

Love's unique, which is why it hasn't got old after a couple million years of being in use.

Mike

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-- incubus
As I chase the leaves like the words I never find ...

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brodie

Now every face, it looks familiar...
then every face would melt away until now...
everyone, do you know, I know your deception?
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""spoken
>fat lady singer
*back up singers
Done with a Trombone, Baratone, and Jazzy Drum Set and sounds something like a mix of Zoot Suit Riot, Never Had A Friend Like ME (Aladin), and Cry If I Want To
---
>I HATE LOVE!
*Woohoo
>I HATE LOVE!
*Yes it's true.
*>I HATE LOVE, yes I do...

>Flower stink, and the sight of hearts will make me green.
I hate pink. It makes me PUKE, and kissing makes me scream.

*ooooohhhhhhHHHHH!
>I HATE LOVE!
*Yah-hoo.
>I HATE LOVE!
*Yes it's true.

>I hate it in the morning and I hate it in the night.
I hate it when it's dark and even when it's light.
I hate it when it's warm, and I hate it when it's cold.
I hated it when I was young, I'll hate it when I'm old.

>oh I HATE LOVE!
*Biggidy-boo...
*She hates love.
>"You know it's true!

>I hate it while I'm eating. I hate it while I sleep.
I hate it cause it makes me cra, and meakes me wanna weep.
If I could destry any emotion that I wish.
I'd smake down love, and blow it up, cause it just smells like fish.

>I HATE LOVE and I HATE LOVE!
*She hates love, and she hates love.
*>Oh, I HATE LOVE, how 'bout YOU?

-music stops-

(Nerdy kid): "You know... I hate love to... wanna go out tonight...
>"Uhhh... ok..."
---

Hehe, actually I'm in love with being in love. And at the moment I feel like I'm in love with someone. I actually defined love one time in a paragraph, but I'll have to dig that up for yas...

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<P:\>erson\Guy.exe -PersonGuy *pERSONgUY.cfg
http://www.personguy.com

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Ice age coming Ice age coming
Throw it into the fire Throw it into the fire
Idioteque, by Radiohead - Kid A

This message has been edited by Rhydant on October 09, 2000 at 08:08 AM

but that doesnt stop me from thinking about fucking them

if the thought of not being able to see respective partner makes you wanna die, it's love. if you're happy to spend time together without caring if you have sex or not, it's love. if you'd do anything within your power for the person, it's love.

thank you, and that was MY £0.0136480

--directhex

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The master has no need for money. And yet he sits and counts it. As a meditation.
-The Book of Cataclysm

Love is when you are willing to give up control of a part of your life, when you are willing to let your own thought and desires be subordinated to the feelings of another. In a real love situation, both people are willing to trust the other and to give up doing what they want to do in favor of what the person they love wants to do. However, in doing this you are actually doing what you want to do most, because what you most want to do is to please the other person.

Language is rather inadequate for this sort of thing. All of the most important parts of life turn out almost impossible to define; they are things that you can feel, but not articulate. Perhaps what I am trying to say could best be summed up as follows:

Love is losing yourself in something or someone else. And love is finding yourself and your purpose in life in that person or that cause or that belief.

Madness, I tell you, madness.