Each person may have their own concept of love, but the truth is that this feeling is unique. Only human beings have the gift of possessing it. By love we are born and by love we die.
Since the handsome young Eros, god of love, was born in the mythology of Greek and Roman civilizations, with different names in each, his arrows have wounded mortals and many stories have been written.
From Adam and Eve to Elena de Troya and Menelao, through celebrities such as Romeo and Juliet, Philip IV the Beautiful and Juana I of Navarre (La loca), Julio Antonio Mella and Tina Modotti, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Dulce María del Loynaz and Pablo Álvarez de Caña... the stories of beautiful, tender, tempestuous, delirious and impossible loves have been captured in books, TV soap opera and films.
In Greek antiquity and Hindu philosophy, love represents the beginning of the cosmos, as in Hesiod, Empedocles or the Veda. According to Aristotle, love for oneself is an indispensable requirement to be able to love another person, although it should not be confused with selfishness.
In Christianity, God loves men by taking pity on them; however, Christians' love for God is characterized by respect and worship. The willingness to help others is called love of neighbor. In psychology, the study focuses on sexual love and the underlying sexual impulse. The individual formation of the libido is the basis of the theory of psychoanalysis, created by the Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud.
José Martí, the most important Cuban writer and journalist of the nineteenth century, once said: "all the happiness in the world... is in not confusing the yearning for love that is felt... with that sovereign, deep and dominating love that does not flourish in the soul, but after a long examination; very careful knowledge, and faithful and prolonged company of the creature in whom love is to be put".
For Martí it is evident that love is the most beautiful feeling, therefore it should not be fleeting or hasty, although in Internet times people say to each other: "I love you" without seeing each other physically and mediating thousands of kilometers from one computer to the other, through web pages that offer to find a partner.
On the other hand, scientists have come, through research, to confirm that making love is equivalent to going up and down a four-story building, so it is an excellent exercise. They have also proven that married men live longer than single men, and as for marriage, apart from being an institution in society, they assure that it is a bond that strengthens the health of the human couple.
Today, when love has also been digitalized, it is worth saying what the great poet Luis Cernuda said: "You justify my existence / If I don't know you, I haven't lived / If I die without knowing you, I don't die, because I haven't lived".
Comments (0)