What is Love?
by Mike Epifani
What is love?
Some have their own answers, some have an answer
that’s not their own, and some can’t
think of an answer to their own question in the
first damn place. Love is a confusing thing.
When answering
a question as important as this one, as universal
and seemingly insurmountable as this one, my
first instinct is to look to my idols. Legends,
whose mark on this world made a profound impact
on me, whose example of perseverance, brilliance,
and craft shaped and shook my every cellular
vestibule.
Friedrich
Nietzsche said, “There is always some
madness in love. But there is also always some
reason in madness.”
Mahatma Gandhi
said, “Where there is love there is life.”
Notorious BIG
said, “when the time is right, the wine is
right, I treat you right, you talk slick, I beat
you right.”
None of these
quotes really answer the question. All they
really do is make me more confused.
My first
instinct was a bust so my second instinct was to
dig deep within myself and write on love from
personal experience. To try and put into words
what love really means to me. Slap it all down
onto the page, no holds barred, anything goes, no
pussy footin’, and possibly no more idioms.
I’ve
never considered love to be something that you
see in the movies. Using a newspaper as an
umbrella and kissing her under the neon sign of a
themed diner or calling in a bomb threat to make
sure her flight’s delayed. Love to me has
never been about any of that sappy stuff.
Love to me is
simple. It’s being able to have sex while
watching Seinfeld and laugh together.
It’s being patient and pushing aside
judgement. It’s making promises and keeping
them and not making promises you can’t keep.
It’s trusting someone completely because you
know they trust you just as much. It’s not
wanting to finish in the mouth because you want
to kiss later. It’s about appreciating that
someone is complicated and compliment them for it.
Love is
whatever you want it to be, which is the most
confusing part about it. To Nietzsche, love is an
underground hurricane. To Gandhi, love is the
only thing that is true in this world and the
only thing that will stand the test of time. To
Notorious BIG, love is some kind of misogynistic
personal worship that you allow someone to share
with you.
But
that’s not an answer. ‘Love is whatever
you want it to be.’ And if it is an answer,
it sucks.
My first and
second instincts were far behind me and I was
ready to give up. But then it happened. I used my
third and final instinct. I went to the only
person I can trust.
“What is
love?” I asked.
“Love is
just really really really liking someone,”
she said.
My 5 year old
niece is a philosophical prodigy.
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