Love Vs. Like

The most haunting confusion - I guess in almost everyone's life!

One likes someone or the other, isn't it? That may be a celebrity, a classmate, a guy/girl staying in the neighborhood - anyone. And that keeps changing. Also, tough to distinguish between love and like. And the reason I feel is, like is something well known, well defined. You like a person when you either like some physical thing in them - eyes / smile / and so on or you like their nature or their brilliance or their aura (for no reason!) So "liking someone" is kind-of well defined.

But there are numerous definitions of "loving someone". Everyone creates their own definition. Some consider love = like. Some consider loving = caring. Some consider loving = thinking_about_the_person_every_now_and_then. For some, love = marriage. For others, love = sex. For few, loving = being possessive, and so on. As the definition changes, so is the act of loving.

Is "like" a prerequisite for "love"? Everyone loves their parents and parents love their children. If considered technically, this love might not involve liking. There are parents who keep complaining that their kids are not brilliant, their daughter is fat, their son is not a social person and he should change his nature, and so on; But, they do love their kids. There are kids who keep complaining that their dad is very strict, their mom is always busy with her office / meetings and can't stay at home, that their parents are not up-to-date in terms of having knowledge related to say, internet / computers and technology. But, still, kids love their parents. I think, the "care" aspect of love is very strong here. Once you care for someone, how s/he looks, s/he behaves, s/he is good at studies, s/he earns - all this does not matter. Is that called selfless love? Or, that is not love? It's just like + care?

Depends! One may define like+care = love, other may not.

For some, love happens only once in a lifetime. For others, it's like - ye nahi aur sahi. Few things mentioned above _are_not_considered_ valid for one-many relation, e.g. sex. But, marriage (subsumes sex!) / thinking_about_them / being_possessive are all okay. care - is kind of odd man out. You may care for several people in your life. Are you loving all?

Talking about sex makes things more complicated. According to me, sex has more to do with "like" and not "love". Love is kind of a thing which is above everything else. If you are perfectly fine with no_marriage, no_sex, no_possessiveness and anything that might affect other person's life whom you consider you 'love' - then may be you really love them. I consider the love between parents and kids as the only natural love. You love them or don't. No matter how wealthy your parents are, how up-to-date their knowledge is, how strict they are - doesn't matter. Similarly, they love their kids - no matter how beautiful they are, how intelligent they are. If one can love a person at this level - which I consider the topmost - that is something I would call - love. All others are just likings. You like a person, and think that may be it's good if you get married with him/her. You like a person and start being possessive about them. If you love them, you_being_possessive might be annoying to them and you will not do that. If you love them, you will love them no matter whether they are ready to marry you.

In this sense, I don't think love happens just once in a lifetime. For me, I think, love = care. I care for many people and do whatever I can for their well being. No matter how they behave with me - because the_way_they_behave_with_me is a part of them and I like it when I like them. I don't like them because they are good to me. I like them because I like them, and probably I care for them because I like them. For me, love ends here.