Before you begin to read, please note that I do have a very special person in my life who I love with all my heart. This was written a while ago, and I decided that this space is best used for significant thoughts. This is one of them...

People say that love is blind. Apparently, when in love, along with a temporary loss of eyesight, one must also experience waves of nausea, anxiety attacks, feelings of worthlessness, either a massive loss or a massive gain of appetite, and depending on which, weight loss or gain, and other such obnoxious and painful side effects. When one experiences a loss of love, the symptoms are even worse. Frances Mays once wrote, “It doesn't actually kill you. Like a bullet to the heart or a head-on car wreck. It should. When someone you've promised to cherish till death do you part says, "I never loved you," it should kill you instantly.” Unfortunately, getting hurt doesn’t kill you. She also asked the question, “What is it about love that makes us so stupid?” Good question. Love turns us into Helen Kellers; we become deaf and blind, stumbling through life, trying to understand.
What is love? Is it a biological reaction, as some suggest, or is it the result of some great divine intervention? If the latter, how can a chemical reaction explain all the pain and sorrow, as well as the joy and rapture that comes with falling in love. And if it is the work of some greater power, he must have an ironic sense of humor.
One of my favorite movie characters once said, “I am a victim of unrequited love.” Who isn’t at one point or another? I feel her pain though. Fear of rejection and later awkwardness keeps us from discovering whether the feelings we have could ever be mutual. Is this, too, a chemical reaction? Are all of our emotions the effect of chemical compounds swirling around in our brains?
Love is defined as, “Affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interest.” Is it really as simple as all that? Is love merely a pleasant feeling that you get when you admire someone? It cannot possibly be that easy. Or can it? Or perhaps the definition is meant to include several different types of love, such as love between siblings, or love between friends. It doesn’t seem, however, to sum up romance.
I am constantly amazed at how fast people fall in and out of love. I myself am guilty of immediately falling for a guy simply from looks and a few words. We all ultimately search for the perfect love, the reclusive love that breaks all boundaries. My grandparents were together for 60 years. What makes things so different these days? The average marriage now has a success rate of about 50%. The odds aren’t good. Is this because things were more permanent 60 years ago? Maybe then, you had to make things work, because quitting was not an option. It seems like everyone looks for instant gratification these days, myself included.
A friend of mine maintains that love is dead, along with chivalry and decency. In my current state, I’m more inclined to believe something like that. This leads a person to think about the difference between love and lust. How can you tell which is which? It seems to be an extremely fine line. Another friend contends that time is the best judge of whether something is love or lust. I’m not sure that that is the case. At least not concerning the life of relationships. In my experience, the length of the relationship is not a measure of happiness.
What makes love? Is there some celestial formula that determines who you’re supposed to be with? Is it %of attraction + proximity + #of common interests = LOVE? Perhaps no one will ever discover the truth about it.
All this leads me to another question. Does loving someone change who we are? I’ve noticed that when I fall for a guy (a rather frequent occurrence), I have a tendency to immediately adopt whatever interests they might have in order to better suit their taste, and hopefully gain some acknowledgement. I understand completely that this is ridiculous behavior, and should be happy with who I am. This, however, is more easily said than done. People, searching for the previously mentioned instant gratification, engage in this sort of behavior occasionally.
So what is it about love that makes us behave so foolishly? I’ve overheard conversations between friends, which involve avoiding love and trying to engage in other kinds of love, such as friendship, and family bonds. While these are beautiful notions, it would be a lie to tell someone that they don’t need anything but these bonds. They are nice, of course, but who on earth doesn’t want someone to love? Even Freddie Mercury asked, “Can anybody find me somebody to love?”