True love, what does it really mean?

      With Valentine's Day approaching, only 26 more days today, I find a lot of people are talking about how to express their love.  I have a few friends who are still in high school or younger (the joys of having younger siblings in the family) some of them planning how to lose the big V, others planning on how to say "I love you" for the first time...the list goes on.  I listen to these things, and want to scream!!!  That's not love at all...true love exists but not in the ways that these people are ranting on about.  So here I am, on my soapbox, and ready to reveal the secrets to the best Valentine's Day you will ever have.

      First off, I feel the need to define "love"  love, is actually not an emotion, by TRUE definition, love is: one working and willing for the good of another.  So by that definition, a lot of times when we say we "love" someone, we aren't always as loving as we should be... and with said definition at our feet, so to speak, it is not as important to say "I love you" to someone you feel towards, but rather "I like you"  as we should, as humans always be wanting the good of another, with selfless intentions, and yet we can never truly have selfless intentions, because we have become these creatures of shadow, always working with self benifit, and rarely working selflessly.  So I feel, I would rather hear, from someone with understanding of this concept, "I like you.." because it has more meaning than "love"  Though, food for thought, in this society, where we, as established moments ago, we are selfish, maybe love IS the correct word, because by saying "I love you" it is insuring that "you" (in the royal sense of the word, not so much the 2nd person sense) are a good person, because you will and work for the good of the one whom you say "I love you" to.  However, back in reality, no one really uses this definition of love, and thusly, the purest meaning is but, dust in the wind, to be a bit cliché.  I also can say, and feel no guilt, that it is society's fault that we have desensitized ourselves to words that should hold so much meaning. 

       The word "like" when used to express a feeling or fondness, could be so much for powerful than it is now, and "love" aaah yes, love,  could have a more intense meaning.  When one views love as an emotion expressing fondness, and in some cases sexual desires it rather loses path to the true meaning; because sexual desire condensed into one word is simply "lust" which has adopted negative context.  Though lust could have ties to other meanings, IE- in the Phantom of the Opera at the end, Christine says to the Phantom "...have you gourged yourself in your lust for blood?  Am I not to be pray to your lust for flesh?"  Displaying that lust can come in different forms, but when one thinks of lust, they think of sex, which is the root of the word mostly. 

      However, for sake of argument, we can simply say "lust" with the understanding that we are addressing sex.  Back on track, I'd like to address the point that the feelings of lust aren't always negative.  A husband could lust for his wife, and she for him, and that is a healthy relationship...it is when you lust for someone out of your relationship.  I say relationship open-endedly, as I do not wish to discuss the root of whom you could have a broken relationship with...and thusly will say lusting outside of your relationship is when one should feel that they have wronged the other people involved. (Relationship being used to describe the connection or level of, I suppose, closeness had with another.  Friendships, parent-kid, dating...all forms of relationships) Love and lust are two very different concepts, as you can see, and like and love are similar but not enough to consider the same.  So if you are a math driven person, we will call LOVE "A", LIKE "B", and LUST "C", A does not equal B and B does not equal C so naturally C does not equal A. 

      They are 3 different words, 3 different concepts.  However, these three things make a perfect romantic relationship.  If person 1 is willing and working the good for person 2 and person 2 is willing and working the good of person 1, they can say they truly love each other.  With love, comes respect because when you want what is good for someone else, you are respecting their needs...maybe not their wants, but their needs.  If person 1 generally always likes person 2 and vice versa, then it is easy to say they are usually happy and enjoying the company of one another, which is good to do when you are involved with another person.  Now, up until this point, I've described any possible relationship, friends or parents etc... But the key component is really the attracted desire for another.  I realize that it may seem as if I'm encouraging sex in all relationships, which may go against many beliefs, but to be truthful, we all have desires of the sexual nature... it is part of the sinful flesh that many would object to my last point on.  However, keeping this as sectional as possible, you have to want another person in ways you don't want your parents, or your best friends.  If you go around kissing all of your friends, I think it's time to rethink a lot of your choices...haha.  I'd say a better choice of wording for the point I am trying to drive home is person 1 needs to want to kiss/cuddle/have sex (maybe not all of them but come on, either you're on board or you're not..) person 2..and vice versa person 2 has to want to be intimate with person 1 in some way.  It makes the perfect romantic relationship, and everyone will hit those 3 points when they are ready.  I am also not saying that anyone who fights in their relationship or has disagreements etc needs to end their friendship or stop dating because there is a way to fight fair and a way this is unhealthy.  HOWEVER, this could go on even LONGER if I went into details there, and seems like it would be a good piece for next time, if enough people ask about it. 

       So what do I think about "true love" I think true love is when you truly work selflessly for the good of another person, which is hard to come by, and if you do, hold on to that person and if you happen to have that person in your life this Valentine's Day, treat them extra special with this new found knowledge, and give them the respect they deserve, and tell them, you like them.  It'll throw them for a loop, and spark a conversation piece over that romantic dinner you are having with them.  Happy trails and I'd like to say that even though I don't know many of you, I do hope that you know, I will do whatever I can to always will and work the good of you.