What is love

What is love Many believe love is a sensation that magically generates when Mr. or Ms. Right appears. No wonder so many people are single. A few years ago, I spoke to a group of high-schoolers about the idea of love. "Someone define love," I said. No response. "Doesn't anyone want to try?" I asked. Still no response. "Tell you what: I'll define it, and you raise your hands if you agree. Okay?" Nods. "Okay. Love is that feeling you get when you meet the right person." Every hand went up. And I thought, Oy. This is how many people approach a relationship. Consciously or unconsciously, they believe love is a sensation (based on physical and emotional attraction) that magically, spontaneously generates when Mr. or Ms. Right appears. And just as easily, it canspontaneously degenerate whenthe magic "just isn't there" anymore. You fall in love, and you can fall out of it. The key word is passivity. Erich Fromm, in his famous treatise"The Art of Loving," noted the sad consequence of this misconception: "There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet, which failsso regularly, as love." (That was back in 1956 ― chances are he'd be even more pessimistic today.) So what is love ― real, lasting love? *Love is the attachment that results from deeply appreciating another's goodness.* The word "goodness" may surprise you. After all, most love stories don't feature a couple enraptured with each other's ethics. ("I'm captivated by your values!" he told her passionately."And I've never met a man with such morals!" she cooed.) But in her study of real-life successful marriages (The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts), Judith Wallerstein reports that "the value these couples placed on the partner's moral qualities wasan unexpected finding." To the people's mind, it isn't unexpected at all. What we value most in ourselves, we value most in others. God created us to see ourselves as good (hence our need to either rationalize or regret our wrongdoings). So, too, we seek goodness in others. Nice looks, an engaging personality, intelligence, and talent (all of which count for something) may attract you, but goodness is what moves you to love. Love is a Choice If love comes from appreciating goodness, it needn't just happen― you can make it happen. Love is active. You can create it. Just focus on the good in another person (and everyone has some). If you can do this easily, you'll love easily. I was once at an intimate concert in which the performer, a deeply spiritual person, gazed warmly at his audience and said,"I want you to know, I love you all." I smiled tolerantly and thought, "Sure." Looking back, though, I realize my cynicism was misplaced. This man naturally saw the good in others,and our being there said enough about us that he could love us. The world actually idealizes this universal, unconditional love. Obviously, there's a huge distance from here to the far more profound, personal love developed over the years, especially in marriage. But seeing goodness is the beginning. Susan learned about this foundation of love after becoming engaged to David. When she called her parents to tell them the good news, they were elated. At the end of the conversation, her mother said,"Darling, I want you to know we love you, and we love David." Susan was a bit dubious. "Mom,"she said hesitantly, "I really appreciate your feelings, but, in all honesty, how can you say yo ulove someone you've never met?" "We're choosing to love him," her mother explained, "because love is a choice." There's no better wisdom Susan's mother could have imparted to her before marriage. By focusing on the good, you can love almost anyone Actions Affect Feelings Now that you're feeling so warmly toward the entire human race, how can you deepen your love for someone? The way God created us, actions affect our feelings most. For example, if you want to become more compassionate, thinking compassionate thoughts may bea start, but giving tzedaka (charity) will get you there. Likewise, the best way to feel loving is to be loving ― and thatmeans giving. While most people believe love leads to giving, the truth (as Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler writes in his famous discourse on loving kindness) is exactly the opposite: Giving leads to love. What is giving? When an enthusiastic handyman happily announces to his non- mechanically inclined wife,"Honey, wait till you see what I got you for your birthday ― a triple-decker toolbox!" that's notgiving. Neither is a father's forcing violin lessons on his son because he himself always dreamed of being a virtuoso. True giving, as Erich Fromm points out, is other-oriented, and requires four elements. To be continued