Jessica Filbeck

Professor Bredin

Women Studies 100

June 22, 2006

The L Word

“Love is patient, and love is kind, it is not jealous or prideful love is not rude, it is not selfish, it is never angry, it is not happy with evil, love is not happy with lies, but rejoices in the truth” (seiyaku). What does the word love mean? Love is viewed differently by a variety of different people all over the world. Nicholas Sparks (101) describes in the novel The Notebook, that “poets often describe love as an emotion that we can’t control”. Love is simply inescapable.

As children grow up they naturally view love as an action of falling desperately in love with the opposite sex and living happily ever after, like a fairy tale. However, as exemplified by the Bedouin people of Africa, love is an emotion they can not express. They believe love has the power to break apart their village, so they must avoid saying love in a formal discourse. Conversely, they rely on reciting poetry to reflect their true emotions in a discrete manner. Even though they try to keep away from love, love is an inevitable human quality.

There are many different types of love that everyone experiences. Love is not just being romantically involved, but can be an unconditional love for your family, friend, or even the love one has for a sport team, new shirt or hairstyle. The love for a sports team or materialistic things is easy to endure, because it needs no work and it does not talk back. Love for a family member is different from loving a game or a significant other. With a family, you are born into a unit that shares the same qualities and values; therefore, love for a family member is innate. Romantically, love is more complicated than the others.

Individuals that are involved in a relationship, struggle with having to combine all their differences into one. They must be able to openly communicate to each other about their future lives together and two different people are naturally going to have discrepancies because they were raised in separate households.

Love has a mind of its own. Once love captures you, you are a prisoner to it and you cannot escape it. Your every thought and every move revolves around the one you fall in love with. One puts so mush time, effort and patience in establishing a strong foundation. This commitment leads to a life long bond of happiness.

Work Cited

Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Seniments: Honor and poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkley: University of California Press, 1986.

Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982.

Sparks, Nicholas.(1996) The Notebook. New York: Time Warner Book Group. (p.103)