Is it really love if it's unrequited? page

[YogaBare]

I just got back from "Les Miserable". Unrequited love is one of its themes.

Made me think - is "love" really love if it's not expressed and experienced two-ways? If someone doesn't love you in return, then do you truly know who they are enough to love them? Is it possible to know someone's soul from a distance, or is it a projection of your ideals and fears? Is unrequited love: love, infatuation, or just self-sabotage?

Thoughts on a postcard please

[RichMahogany]

I'm in the boring and unromantic school of thought of this shit's all brain chemistry evolved over millions of years to help trick our bodies into doing things that optimize the ability of our genes to replicate themselves. No "ghost-in-the-machine," no "soul," no "soul mate," no "true love" in the Princess Bride sense. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

[Violette_R]

If we're talking about romantic love, I would say yes. But seeing as unrequited is the only kind I've ever felt, I'm probably talking out my ass.

EDIT: I mean, I've got nothing to compare it to. But I felt it. At risk of sounding confrontational when I don't really mean to be, who is anyone to tell me I didn't feel what I felt?

[magicmerl]

I "love" my laptop. Or is it infatuation? Or self-sabotage?

[RichMahogany]

I "love" my laptop. Or is it infatuation? Or self-sabotage?

Pairbonding instinct.

[cori93437]

I just got back from "Les Miserable". Unrequited love is one of its themes.

Made me think - is "love" really love if it's not expressed and experienced two-ways? If someone doesn't love you in return, then do you truly know who they are enough to love them? Is it possible to know someone's soul from a distance, or is it a projection of your ideals and fears? Is unrequited love: love, infatuation, or just self-sabotage?

Thoughts on a postcard please

Unrequited love is a bunch of fanciful thinking... most often in the wrong direction!
Unlike the movies it usually turns out to be a comedy of errors.
Such silliness we make up when we assume to know our "true love" from a far.
It's bunk!
Run away...

[Derpamix]

Your soulmate isn't the one who can love you the most, but the one who can make you feel the most.

I shared this with you before:

"it's very rare for a relationship to withstand the Earth's gravitational pull and where it's going to take people and how they're going to grow. I've heard it said that you can't really have a true love unless it was a love unrequited. It's a harsh one, because then your truest one is the one you can't have forever."

Limerence and unrequited love are different things.

[EagleRiverDee]

I would say absolutely that love doesn't have to be returned to be love.

A parent loves their baby from the moment they are born- we have no idea at what point the baby loves the parent back. It's still love.

A person can love another person- in a romantic sense or not- and the love is genuine and real whether it's returned or not. Or how about after someone dies? They can no longer love you back- does it mean you all of a sudden don't love them anymore? I think not.

[cori93437]

In terms of Les Mis: Unrequited love means a person falling in love with another person VISUALLY from afar, but not ever meeting that person, but "in LOOOOOOVE" with them. Like totally "knows their soul" in love... for like a year. *nods*


Why has Taylor Swift NOT written THIS song?
It makes more sense that that Romeo & Juliet travesty...



Loving a baby who you touch and hold and communicate with(on some level)... and Continuing to love a person after they die is not really the same IMO.

[Derpamix]

Reminds me of one of my favorite Red House Painters songs

Red House Painters - Bubble - YouTube

In a particular emotion state, it's possible, and it's still love. Unrequited love is a much broader subject than what's in Les Mis.