Love and Infatuation
I remember one time a couple of years ago when I was madly "in love"
with a fellow student. It hurt a lot, and I got all embarrassed
whenever I was close. To be fair, she could sense my affections and was
also uneasy. This is what most people call love. I call it infatuation,
although I believe there were elements of love there. Love is a difficult
thing to understand, even to define, which is one reason why it gets
confused with infatuation. Love has nothing to do with sex or anything
like that. Much of that is lust, which is also confused with love. The
key to love, I believe, lies in its selfless nature. Love seeks to do
what's best for the loved. It is hard to see sometimes, but that may
include letting the loved person go their own way, apart from you. I let
that lady know of my feelings and asked to be friends, and much aching
was relieved, but let me tell you, I would have given a lot to protect
her. I also have a love for a large number of my friends. I would
sacrifice a lot for their sakes too. A mother and father love their child
with such a selfless love as well; the best nonreligious image I have of
love is of a mother's love for her child. Of course, the purest image of
love is when Jesus gave his life a ransom for us, so we could be with Him.
I believe love to be a rarer thing than most suppose. Most of the time,
when I hear of a high school couple "in love", it's probably infatuation,
"puppy love". Time is the only true test of whether it really is love, for
love, unlike infatuation, never dies.