The thing about love is it can never be equal, no matter how hard we strive for it to be. Mutual, yes; requited, yes; but equivalent, no.
We are all selfish by default, and when we love, we want to be loved, too. It's easy to say "You don't have to love me back", because that is infatuation, not love. Kinda like "I love Natalie Portman", and she doesn't even know I exist. No, that's not love. Strangely, even for such infatuations there is a burning desire for the person to love us back. (Oh c'mon, at least notice me!)
When we truly love someone, there's an unmistakable feeling of generosity. All the love and affection we've been saving up for our entire lives, we want to give to this person, or these people. It could be family, spouse, kin, friend, whoever, but we want them to feel loved, for some mystifying reason.
And the truth is, when we genuinely love someone, we never calculate who loves who more. We love them in the ways we think they would want to be loved, even if sometimes it might not be what they really want. It will never be "I love you as much as you love me", or " I love you equally". Sure, we say that all the time, but love is about wanting to love a person more than he/she can love us back; it's like a competition to see who can love more. We stop being calculative. We stop thinking about how it would inconvenience us, disadvantage ourselves, or even hurt us, because there is a heartfelt sentiment that is radiated by love. People can feel it, I'm telling you. It's not like trying to pitch a sale, or claiming credit for something you worked your ass off for. There is no "Look! Look at all this love I'm giving you!" And when someone feels your love, they can either choose to reciprocate it or reject it.
Nothing comes quite close to the feeling of having your love reciprocated. It's blissful. A stunning bliss. A breathtaking stunning bliss. Likewise, nothing can quite break your heart like an unrequited love. That feeling sucks. We can never make someone love us if they don't; we shouldn't even be trying that hard to. What we need to do is channel this love (and harness this heartbreak) to someone more deserving of a love like ours.
We used to compete with one another for good results, to come up top in class, clamour and vie for all the things we thought mattered. Well, love is kinda like that. When two people are in love, they bring out the best in each other through this competition. Perhaps along the way it might become taxing, or even labourious, but hold on to that love, I'm telling you. It is a feeling of nothing less than satisfaction, gratitude and appreciation.
Or to put simply, it feels like love.
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