True Love

Oscar Wilde said

“You don’t love someone because of their looks or their clothes or their car. You love them because they sing a song only your heart can understand.”

This is such a beautiful quote about love and what it means. Love, as they say, is blind. Sure it is. But only to the physical and material aspects of life. As an emotion, it sees and feels it all. Love is not something that you can touch or feel with your body. It is intangible; it can only be felt by the soul. When two people are in love, they are only there for each other; they can only sense each other, and the rest of the world is inconsequential and immaterial.

Also Read: Such Was Their Love

Books, movies, songs, poetry; all talk about this beautiful emotion. As per them, the world is worth living in only if love exists. Love connects and binds as nothing else can. Love brings a smile to our faces, a spring in our step, joy into our eyes. Life without romance is pointless. We all need love for that zing, that much-needed spark in our lives.

People in love are in a world of their own. The emotion envelops them in a warm and fuzzy cocoon giving a sense of security and belongingness. It gives them a reason to smile and be upbeat about life.

Everyone wants that one person who will be their heart and soul, who will mean the world to them.

But is there really something known as true love? What is true love? Can two people love each other selflessly and all the time? Or is it something that only exists in the heads of writers and poets? Is it only romantic fluff meant to give people something to fantasise about and provide them with a respite from the mundane of life? Even if one were to find it, does it / can it last forever?

A lot of people feel that nobody can love somebody else forever at the cost of their own happiness. They think we all are self-seekers seeking happiness, peace and prosperity for ourselves. And so we don’t have time for anyone else. For some time or some part of our lives, we may make someone the centre of our existence, but it can’t be a forever thing. And most people can’t do it even for a while.

So if this is so, how did the idea of love come about? Is it only a figment of people’s imagination, something to amuse /distract people, making them feel happy about life?

I don’t subscribe to the viewpoint that there is no such thing as love. Love definitely exists, and those who don’t believe in it have probably never experienced it, which is why they don’t believe in it.

Love is a reality, and people do fall in love. It is one of the truest emotions that completely takes over you. The feeling of being with that one person who means the world to you cannot be compared to anything else.

Also Read: 7 Ways Of Celebrating Love – The Girly Way

However, only some get to experience it. It could be because of fate or the inability to completely give themselves to another person. So if you haven’t experienced it, you obviously cannot know what it is all about.

Not only that, the experiences can  also vary, which could make all the difference. If the experience is not good, it could make people cynical and doubtful of the emotion.

The love between two people can take different connotations. It may not always be how you want it to be, but that is not something you can help.

The best form of love is when two people fall in love with each other and exist in that state all their lives. True love is what binds them. When cupid strikes, it strikes them both, leaving them with no choice but to fall in love. Their love is pure, true and selfless. You have to see this kind of love to believe it. The care, the attitude, the devotion to each other, and the concern for the other person cannot be hidden. This is what love stories are made of, and this is what we all desire. But how many of us get it? I can’t say.

There is another form of love where one person is in love, but the feelings, unfortunately, are not reciprocated. This is what we term unrequited love. Despite the most genuine feelings from one side, the other side does not feel that way. This makes the whole situation unfortunate, but then love is not something one can force upon the other person. If it is there, it is there; if it isn’t, then it isn’t.

There could be times when both are in love, but fate does not want them to be together. They are not destined to meet, and so they don’t meet. Anything could come in the way, from societal or parental pressures to unforeseen happenings and silly misunderstandings. The reason could be anything but the bottom line is that the two cannot be together despite loving each other. There is a feeling of sadness and injustice, but there is no doubt about the depth of the emotion.

However, the worst form is when one of the two is genuinely in love while the other only pretends to be in love. Most of the time, this happens when the person probably wants sexual favours and sees no other way to get them other than by pretending to be in love. They are ok to take advantage of the other person’s vulnerability/ emotions without any guilt or remorse. That is the worst thing anyone can do to someone, which is why some people think that love is a weakness and they cannot fall prey to it. If this is what they have experienced, you cannot blame them if they get cynical about this emotion.

So ultimately, what true love is and what it means to you depends on you. What holds true for one may not hold for another, but to say/believe that it doesn’t exist is a fallacy. True love certainly exists; you must be fortunate enough to experience it in the right way.