Appearing in virtually every aspect of our culture, love has been defined, redefined, marginalized, mutilated, perverted, disavowed, analyzed and misunderstood, denied and accepted. It encompasses happiness, sadness, and everything else in the world. But each person experiences love in his own terms. Love is so unique and complex that no two people experience it in the same capacity. Thus, the word "love" is inadequate for conveying the nature of one's feelings towards a beloved. It merely serves as a common reference to describe a state of being, though it does not provide insight into the nature of this state.
To begin, love is the designated title of the phenomenon of one person's strong emotional attachment to another person, and the second person's connection to the first. In other words, love is a mutual reciprocation of adoration. Love involves the well-being of the parties involved. A lover desires his beloved to be happy, and her happiness brings satisfaction and happiness to him. Hence love is characterized by a feeling of dependence--the lover relies, to a certain degree, on the beloved in order to function. This is not to say that there is no free will in a love relationship. On the contrary, a strong bond between lovers allows for great independence, but also the security of knowing you are in someone's thoughts. In a truly healthy love relationship, the less desirable characteristics of the beloved are acknowledged, but they do not lesson the emotional connection significantly. Furthermore, the ability of lovers to argue and disagree yet maintain a love for each other testifies to a healthy love relationship. Those who are in love with one another feel an indescribable desire to consume and be consumed by each others' essences -- to become a single being. Paradoxically, lovers also require a level of independence, they need a certain amount of individuality as well.
