Posted:
So my question is how do you determine which love is pure?
I am no expert but here are my 2 cents:
Love is such a complicated emotion...all the words in the world fail to effectively capture its meaning. And besides, it means something different to everyone anyways.
But love is...just a feeling. And a feeling is the state of your mind at a given moment. How can u decide if a feeling is pure? When you are sad, do u question the purity of your sadness? When you are happy, do u ever stop to think if ur happiness is pure or not? No, because it's just an emotion/feeling...and feelings are just felt. If you thought you shouldn't be feeling a certain way, then does that make it impure? It's the intentions behind that make something pure or impure, not the feelings itself. For example, if someone is in love with a married woman, his feelings are not impure. Perhaps not very healthy but hey, can u really help how you feel? However, if he purposely chooses to seduce her, then his intentions make his feelings impure. Btw, I am not thinking of AR in this example but rather the Keira Knightly story from the movie, Love Actually.
Even though I am partial to SR, I don't think AR love wasn't pure. It's a shame that destiny (lets just leave aside the CVS for the moment and look at this from the story's perspective) separated them.
You mentioned three scenarios/relationships where I feel you question the purity of love.
1. At one point in history, incest was common and widely accepted due to social, cultural, and economic reasons. Nature, however, doesn't seem to favor survival rate of kids from a set of parents with an extremely similar gene pool. There is research that supports the difficulties (like miscarriages) many women in such marriages face. Anyways, over time, the idea has become outdated and taboo. However, if two cousins genuinely fell in love and want to get married, then who am I to decide their happiness? They have the right to live their life on their own terms.
2. Gay/Lesbian Marriages: It's a very controversial issue now only because more people are open to disclosing their sexual affinity publicly. It doesn't mean that gay/lesbian relationships were non-existent. For as long as humanity has been here, these relationships have existed. You only need to look at the sculptures at the Khajuraho Temple in India to know that...why would such erotic images be carved at a temple? I am not asking anyone to change their opinion but to question the beliefs they hold.
3. The Man & the Dolphin: Personally, I find this weird because I would figure you need the consent of the dolphin to get married since marriage is a union between two beings. But again, who am I to say the man's love is impure? Perhaps, his decision to get married befuddles us because marriage in the conventional sense happens between a man and a woman. It doesn't seem natural and yet, there are lots of odd couples in nature too. For example, a horse and a donkey produce a mule. Strange but it happens. Again, who am I to judge as long as the man and the dolphin are happy. 😆
I don't believe in holding someone's happiness to religious and societal rules. However, I do believe in ethics -- in short, a code of right vs. wrong. And I understand everyone has a different philosophy of right and wrong conduct. Personally, I base my values on experiences, logic, and observations rather than religion or society.
Sorry for the long post! I couldn't help myself 😆 But GREAT question!
~Cookie
I am no expert but here are my 2 cents:
Love is such a complicated emotion...all the words in the world fail to effectively capture its meaning. And besides, it means something different to everyone anyways.
But love is...just a feeling. And a feeling is the state of your mind at a given moment. How can u decide if a feeling is pure? When you are sad, do u question the purity of your sadness? When you are happy, do u ever stop to think if ur happiness is pure or not? No, because it's just an emotion/feeling...and feelings are just felt. If you thought you shouldn't be feeling a certain way, then does that make it impure? It's the intentions behind that make something pure or impure, not the feelings itself. For example, if someone is in love with a married woman, his feelings are not impure. Perhaps not very healthy but hey, can u really help how you feel? However, if he purposely chooses to seduce her, then his intentions make his feelings impure. Btw, I am not thinking of AR in this example but rather the Keira Knightly story from the movie, Love Actually.
Even though I am partial to SR, I don't think AR love wasn't pure. It's a shame that destiny (lets just leave aside the CVS for the moment and look at this from the story's perspective) separated them.
You mentioned three scenarios/relationships where I feel you question the purity of love.
1. At one point in history, incest was common and widely accepted due to social, cultural, and economic reasons. Nature, however, doesn't seem to favor survival rate of kids from a set of parents with an extremely similar gene pool. There is research that supports the difficulties (like miscarriages) many women in such marriages face. Anyways, over time, the idea has become outdated and taboo. However, if two cousins genuinely fell in love and want to get married, then who am I to decide their happiness? They have the right to live their life on their own terms.
2. Gay/Lesbian Marriages: It's a very controversial issue now only because more people are open to disclosing their sexual affinity publicly. It doesn't mean that gay/lesbian relationships were non-existent. For as long as humanity has been here, these relationships have existed. You only need to look at the sculptures at the Khajuraho Temple in India to know that...why would such erotic images be carved at a temple? I am not asking anyone to change their opinion but to question the beliefs they hold.
3. The Man & the Dolphin: Personally, I find this weird because I would figure you need the consent of the dolphin to get married since marriage is a union between two beings. But again, who am I to say the man's love is impure? Perhaps, his decision to get married befuddles us because marriage in the conventional sense happens between a man and a woman. It doesn't seem natural and yet, there are lots of odd couples in nature too. For example, a horse and a donkey produce a mule. Strange but it happens. Again, who am I to judge as long as the man and the dolphin are happy. 😆
I don't believe in holding someone's happiness to religious and societal rules. However, I do believe in ethics -- in short, a code of right vs. wrong. And I understand everyone has a different philosophy of right and wrong conduct. Personally, I base my values on experiences, logic, and observations rather than religion or society.
Sorry for the long post! I couldn't help myself 😆 But GREAT question!
~Cookie
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