What's Love Got to do With It?

Love. A word, an emotion, a feeling. A word so important, so serious, but yet treated so carelessly. What is love? What makes one person love another? What's the difference between loving someone and being in love? There are many different answers to each of the above questions, because every person has their own view of what they think love is. However, either way, it is not something to be played with, so why do people use the word as a way to express how they feel about another if they don't mean it? Why is it so easy to say you love someone, but so hard to figure out what love really is?

As I look back on previous relationships with men in my life, I've noticed that the word "love" has been used several times, yet none of those relationships have worked out. It's made me think about whether there really was any "love" there in the first place--whether I really loved them, or if they really loved me. Two of my ex-boyfriends have even gone so far as to say that they were "in love" with me, and wanted me to be their wife. One of them even proposed (and yes I still have the ring)! But if we really loved each other like we claimed to back then, why aren't we together now?

Recently I've had a couple of men in my life that hadn't known me more than a month, but had felt the need to say things that really made me question their motives, and how they really felt about me. One guy said that he cared about me a lot, wanted to be with me, and was willing to wait for me, even if I was currently trying to work out a relationship with someone else. It kind of pushed me away because I had only been out on a date with this guy once--all other times we just happened to be at the same happy hour. Another guy that I was dating for no more than three weeks randomly asked me if I loved him, and then said that he loved me. I'm thinking to myself, whoa...you don't even know me to that extent yet...how can you even associate "love" with me at all? I'm used to witnessing those things coming from us women...saying that they really care about a guy or even "love" them when they hardly know anything about them, but for a man to say that to me seems completely shady. I don't know...maybe I'm being insensitive about it all. Maybe those guys really did (or do) care, but is it really possible to feel so strongly about someone so soon?

Sex is another issue that affects the whole "love" subject, but it's more so an issue with women. Why is it that after we become involved in a sexual relationship with someone, we become so attached? This emotional and physical attachment can be dangerous, as it can cause women to think we care about a man more than anything else in the world and feel that we are "in love" with them. What is all that about? I've heard and read about a chemical in a woman's body that causes this attachment, but damn...is it this same chemical that makes us think we love them? Or maybe it really is love. But once again, if that were the case, then why aren't we with them now? Wouldn't it make sense to only love someone that loves you back?

Love is something that causes so many thoughts to run through my head, because it's such an easy word to say, but when you really think about it, it's a difficult word to explain and analyze. Yes, I know this entry was back and forth and had no real direction, but isn't that what the definition of love is like, with no single meaning or designated direction or path that shows where it's going to end up? Yup...sounds about right.