jubu

This is frustrating. Wikipedia says: "Love is the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all human kindness, compassion and affection." This totally works for me. But then Wikipedia continues:" In religious context, love is not just a virtue, but basis for all being. ("God is love"), and the foundation for all divine law." And this is where it gets messy. I mean, I know I am the atheist/skeptic/philosophical materialist, who only tries to believe in things that can be verified in a way or another, so I'm not hip to this kind of lingo, but damn, this doesn't clarify anything this kind of nonsense just muddies the issue. 'Love' becomes something nebulous and mostly meaningless when you say something like "Love is the foundation of divine law." Nobody knows what that means!

A dear friend of mine, Jara, is such a fucking hippie* he sometimes makes me want to cry. We once had a annoying discussion:
Jara: The true nature of Universe is love.
Me: What does that mean?
Jara: If you love, your love will be returned.
Me: So I guess the people who were killed in the Rwandan genocide just didn't love enough.
Jara: They were destroyed by hate of others.
Me: The machetes and AK47's really helped.
Jara: Those were just the tools of hate.
Me: So hate conquers love, when it has the right tools?
Jara: Love always wins in the end.
Me: What does that mean?
Jara: In the end, there is always love. That is what we mean when we say 'Universe'.
Me: No. When we say 'Universe' we mean all the all the matter, radiation, void and forces that make up our physical reality.
Jara: That's not what I mean by it.
Me: Is there any point in continuing this discussion, before we can even agree what do the words mean?
Jara: Like what?
Me: At least love and universe seem to need defining.
Jara: I thought I just defined them.
Me: To me, that was only confusing.

I know it's difficult word to pin down as it is, but it just gets more confusing when you add spiritual** nonsense on top of it. I'll stick to "Love is the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment" for now. But in practice I do feel that love is in the actions you take. Love that doesn't manifest in actions, isn't anything important. If you love me, I need to see it some way or it doesn't matter. If I love you, I try to make sure that you can see it affecting your life.

( Small rant on hippies after the cut. And spirituality. And some sweet beat poetry by Tim Minchin. )