Love: An Illusion?

To be honest, what inspired this was reading Daniel Yee's little essay abt Antonio's quote... Thanks for the inspiration.

I did think about that, then my mind fluttered to a phrase in the song "That's Why (You Go Away)" by Michael Learns To Rock. The phrase goes Love is one big illusion I should try to forget, but there's something left in my head.

We shall start at the end of the quote. Of course, love leaves an indelible mark in one's memory, whether that be good or bad. Love earned, the power of love, love lost; they all have strong impacts on a person. Have you heard of the song Love Changes Everything by Michael Ball?

Is love really an illusion? There are 3 main classifications of love - platonic love, sexual love, and spiritual love. For organization purposes, we shall look at them individually.

Of course, spiritual love is not an illusion - it is deeper than other forms and infinitely more meaningful. It shouldn't be 4th in Maslow's Hierachy of Needs - it should be the thing that holds the whole pyramid together.

This brings us to platonic love, which is essentially friendship. The Merchant of Venice describes the nature of friendship as bearing god-like amity and nobility. Examples supporting this include Bassanio's speech in Act 4, that "life itself, my life, and all the world, are not with me esteemed above thy life".

The problem is, it's very difficult to evaluate friendships. It's not possible to express it numerically, as much as HW claims. It's just... impossible. The only thing you can draw from is circumstantial evidence. All I know is that relationships can be superficial, and I need to solidify and strengthen them. I can only say that 1 person really cares for me in 2.12 now after a chain of events at the end of Term 3...

And finally, there's sexual love. Of course, I am in no position to comment on this since I haven't experienced it and will likely not for at least 10 more years.

The problem is, love is of a strange, fickle nature. It is often difficult to predict its future... you only know how it is now, and how it was in the past. And even then, it's hard to really get any kind of accurate estimation regarding them... you just know who you love, but not how much you love them.