and almost everybody believes in love,
but can't say what it is,
beyond being something numinous.
And if someone not your mother asks you for it
you know they're wanting something else
perhaps several things
that don't amount to numinosity,
don't include straightforwardness,
are just a list.
I have experienced attraction, crushes,
affection, infatuation, loyalty,
but don't know what love is.
Neither did my mother, nor my aunt.
I think it might be just another
awareness-closing myth, like God.
3 comments:
George Michael's classic song "I want to know what love is; I want you to show me..." sings what you question here, although in leaving the answer open-ended and yet desired for perhaps articulates its possibility, openness, its variations, its multiple meanings, definitions, and experience. Reality, illusion, emotion, fantasy, action, relating, sex, kindness, concept, love isn't one thing ever.
I have to add--since I resonate to this blog comment intensely because it poses many questions and problems about such a vastly overused but very important word in our cultures. As always, Auban, I appreciate your honesty. To make love numinous makes love transcendent. To make love transcendent eliminates its possibility here. The French word "amour-propre" came to mind since its many negativities are also untranslatable as one concept. Ironically, it uses the word "love" and the word "own" or "self." Like "amour" isn't "amour-propre" a mirror of a mirror, reflecting forward and backward infinitely?
I suppose love is when you are willing to deal with other person his/hers crap that comes with it.
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