The High Cost of Love: A Price Worth Paying - Essay Example

The High Cost of Love: A Price Worth Paying Love is the most discussed, debated, talked bout, sought after, and heartfelt emotion on the planet, yetmankind still struggles to form even the simplest definition for this elusive emotion. Love is a noun, an adjective, and a verb. Love can be an abstract concept that demonstrates our deep and emotional attachment to one another, or can be a cold and quantified feeling, measured in a scientific laboratory using modern medical instruments. No other word has as many meanings, applications, aspects, or sides as love does. The very simplicity of love makes it a complex perception that is beyond all human ability to comprehend. Love is one of those gifts of life that we can not describe, but we know it when we feel it. It has been known as infatuation, worship, affection, and devotion. While it has brought the human race untold pleasure, the cost has, at times, been incalculable pain. It binds people together as couples, families, and friends. But love's darker side can also make its mark in the hands of an estranged ex-spouse, hell-bent on vengeance, lashing out at the latest victim of lost love. The depth of human feeling that drives love to forever alter the world around us comes at a cost that most men will gladly pay. The emotion of love can have a significant impact on the physical nature of the world around us, and change its shape, intention, and meaning. The most intense effect that love has is on people who have 'fallen in love' or continue to be 'in love'. When people are in love, life takes on new meanings as the world around us projects new colors and unexpected dimensions. There is a classic film entitled Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) that portrays the inseparable depth of the human emotion called love. The lyrics to the song by the same name proclaim, "In the morning mist, Two lovers kissed, And the world stood still". For these lovers, love had stopped time. Still, beyond the basic chemistry that we feel when we are in love, and outside the glow that a girl in love displays, there is the physical change that takes place when we are in the presence of love. Words become poetry, as dark becomes dusk and daylight becomes dawn. What was previously seen as an act of skill and coordination becomes a dance of grace and elegance. Love has become the lens that filters the world for the couple that has fallen in love. Love can initiate compassion, empathy, charity, and kindness. Love is the breath of life in a cold and mechanical world. The meaning of love is also shard by feelings that are less intense and less dramatic than the 'in love' that can alter life's landscape. However, this love still has the ability to redefine and shape the world around us. A person may feel love for an inanimate object as a way to elevate its status to a unique and exceptional level. A person may love their car, and in professing this they are able to form a more intimate connection and more personal relationship with their automobile. The car becomes a soul mate, a family member, and an extension of the owner. The act of love has transformed a pile of rubber and steel into an object with humanlike qualities, able to give and receive pleasure. Alternatively a person may love an activity that they engage in. A person who loves to play basketball has no concept of the passage of time when they are playing. Athletes who love the game to this degree are said to be 'in the zone'. All motion crawls to a standstill as time begins to stop. Nothing exists outside the activity, as the love has blocked out all distractions and eliminated everything that is not the object of love. The love expressed through an inanimate object has the power to transform matter and change the pace of time. Along with love's elation and beauty, it has, throughout history, been responsible for emotional upheaval, violence, poor decisions, and wars. Love's hold can so enrapture the smitten that reality is often set aside, as the victim becomes a mere pawn in love's game. Women have been known to endure a lifetime of hardship, pain, and misery simply because they were in love with their tormentor. This twisted form of love has led to the death of some of its victims, as well as the men, as the women reach their breaking point and the pain exceeds their capacity to love. Men have sacrificed fortunes, careers, and kingdoms chasing the elusive temptation of love. Addicts have undergone bankruptcy for the love of gambling, and our nation's health is threatened by our love of fast food. Violence has erupted, as men will fight for the one they love and accept the risk of death as they battle for the object of their affection. While we praise the magnificence of love, we curse the dark side that lingers in love's shadow. In conclusion, for every individual there is a unique definition of love, and a laundry list of love's derivatives that describe the many faces of love as we know it. The special feeling of being 'in love' with a mate has the potential to transform matter and stop time. While the love of our children has no less devotion, it is a completely different feeling, yet still able to change mediocre ability into genius and average talent into art. The love of a person, or the love of a thing, can give life a perspective of optimism and hope that suppresses the risks and threats that lurk in the shadows of life. There is plenty to love about love, but it does not come to us without warnings. History is littered with the ruined lives, the painful suffering, and the agony of frustration left behind in the wake of love gone wrong. Love is a treasure, but the cost of love is never cheap. This is the price we gladly pay for love, and the cost of transcending our mundane world into the realm of beauty, elation, and joy. Bibliography Baumann, Gerlinde, and Linda M. Maloney. Love and Violence: Marriage as Metaphor for the Relationship. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003. Byrne, Rhonda. The Secret. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2006. Davis, Jeanie L. "Athletes in the Zone: They're Not Neurotic." WebMD. 13 Aug. 2004. 26 Apr. 2009 . Gellene, Denese. "Bonding With a Mate Changes Brain Chemistry, Researchers Find." Los Angeles Times 16 Oct. 2008. "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" The Four Aces Lyrics. Oldie Lyrics. 26 Apr. 2009 . Read More