Monday, August 20, 2007

Love Is Not Possessive

"Love possesses not nor would it be possessed."

- Khalil Gibran


There are many kinds of love, but I think the rarest and purest kind is anything but possessive. It is that love which is most liberating, which is most life affirming, and in which we both transcend ourselves and are renewed.

That is the kind of love the Greeks called "agape" and that Jesus apparently believed caused us to be "born again".

Such love most often comes as an unexpected breeze -- and like a breeze it refreshes. Like a breeze, it seldom lasts for long. And like a breeze, it may return at any time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very romantic indeed! Love has one of two tragic consequences:
1. It doesn't culminate in marriage: a tragedy!
2. It culminates in a marriage: a greater tragedy!!
:-)

Paul Sunstone said...

ROFL! Rambodoc!

BraveHeart said...

I think that word love belongs to the same family of words as god. We kind of do not get the meaning because it does not exist as a 'thing'. Love is not possessive? one could argue with a statement like that.

Paul Sunstone said...

Hi Braveheart! Welcome! You raise some good points. I agree the different kinds of love are each fairly difficult to define -- especially when one compares defining the various kinds of love with defining tangible things.

Of course, the only kind of love I was talking about in this post was that rare kind of love that is not possessive. Most other -- perhaps all other -- kinds of love involve some degree of possessiveness.

BraveHeart said...

I would love that kind of love to reign upon our earth!

It would be easier when I see your post when I write my response, but you mentioned this love comes like a breeze and it's short lived. Even though it returns, but then, not to the same two people. It kind of possesses for a while, it captures the heart.

Thanks for welcoming, I will visit the cafe. I like to converse from time to time, not argue but certainly look from the other points of view.