Story #17 “Emotions”

What is love? If you love something, you care for it, you honor it, you do what’s best for it…right? I have been hearing this word love, but have not seen love in the way I define it. Do I not understand love? Perhaps love is not actually something that benefits the receiver, but is only to the benefit of the producer of the feeling. I have always believed that when you experience such immense love for anything…person, animal, object, place, specific experience…an admiration for what that thing gives to you would ignite a passion to care for it. To ensure it not only survives, but thrives. The thing that gives you such a feeling of love should never be hindered, for even if the love is only in benefit of you, the very act of hindering it could ultimately come back to disadvantage you. Yet, love is selfish. You will hinder the very thing you love, for your love is more important to you than the thing you love’s wellbeing. Your desire to have it, to hold it, to be with it over every other desire in your life is not best for what you love, it is best for your feeling of love. When I hear love, I feel shame. Shame for the lover’s drive to complete their desire over the thriving of the loved one. For me, do not love me, I don’t want to be loved. I want your respect above all else.