Saturday, February 14, 2015

Love Diverted ~ not Dead



Gosh, I bet widows have a lot to say about this.  This Valentine's day is for you. 
 
   Tell me, how do you love?   

I really want to know.  Of course, this being my blog, I get to answer straightaway. 

I signed up for this class on love, taught by that Big Heart In The Sky, 32 years ago. I've yet to graduate.   One terrific husband and three boyfriends after him, it could be that Big Heart feels I've learned all I needed to about romantic love.  In any case, BH has swapped out my romantic lesson plan for the new platonic love lesson.  Of course I'd like to punch BH out for this.   Platonic love is so hard for me to grasp!   However, seeing how much I learned about romantic love, this chapter on platonic love can prove interesting.
On this day which celebrates romantic love, however, I want to flex my  "Romance " muscles.  Hey you creatures of the air, the earth, the water.

  love you!!   

As for flexing my Platonic muscles...Oh me, oh my.  I'm not a people person.  How do you DO this PLATONIC ****?


  how do you love?!  

7 comments:

  1. Okay, as a widow the love of my life is not sitting here beside me BUT he's still loved and I know I was loved back. No one or nothing can take that away from me. It's my history. ALL MINE! And time tends to make things like that sweeter with age.

    Ohmygod, platonic love is the most natural thing on earth! Over the course of our lives we love a lot of people and things in a platonic way---including ourselves. Love should never be confused with sexual desire although it's wonderful when the two walk hand and hand into your life and plan on staying around. Love and sexual desire can and should be separated in your thoughts for the sake of examining how you view platonic love. Can you honestly say you've slept with every person you ever loved or at least wanted to? I think not. Favorite teachers, a relative or friend...it's all love platonic. I think what you're really asking is how do you have a platonic relationship with a man who you have a romantic interest in and the answer is---crap, I've run out of time.

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    1. I adore that nothing can take sweet history we shared with someone from us. May I clarify a point you made? Romantic love isn't sexual for me. Hmmm. Just a sec. Let me look up what C.S. Lewis wrote... The Four Loves: Storge - familial love. Philia - friendship. Eros - romance. Agape - unconditional love.

      Oh. I can see why you'd take romantic love to mean sexual. Right-O. I'd say the love I have for all Big Heart's creatures is Agape - unconditional love, with a side dish of sensory pleasure. At this point, I'm looking to expand Philia - the friendship love of emotional reciprocity, with a side dish of chicken soup when we're sick.

      Platonic love MAY be the most natural thing on earth, yet it can indeed be thwarted with abuse. Then it heads toward all manner of substitutes (think addictions and personality disorders). Your platonic love sounds like it thrived - I can't remember most of my childhood because I encased myself in a shell to feel less pain. I got a little less human as a result. Love didn't blossom for me until I met that man I married.

      I haven't met a widow, or a jilted lover or friend yet who hasn't been tempted to close their heart after heartbreak. There are still many paths to life and love satisfaction, now that Eros is out of the picture. I'm growing my skills (I hope. I hope) to wrest just as much pleasure from life as I did when Eros was around.

      How's that for a concise answer? LOL

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    2. That was a great, concise answer and way too deep for me to adsorb with one reading. The one thing that stands out right now is the point you make about our abilities to enjoy platonic love being warped in a bad way or formed in a good way by our early childhoods. Point well taken.

      You've been playing with your title again. This morning it was different and I like this one the best so far.

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    3. Maybe I'll stick with this title. I do so love being at the drawing board!!

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  2. You neither? LOL. God, I love you! Oops! Methinks I just bumped into platonic love!

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