What Is Love?

Starting at the beginning - not with a definitive definition of love but rather with my personal definition, as this is the only one I can reasonably give. Love is a connection. However, it is a different connection to any other. Whether we are conscious of it or not we all form connections with those around us, our friends, family, partners, and even sometimes fleeting ones with complete strangers. A separation of attachments is something that has evolved and is sometimes blurry. Friends and lovers has always been a classic blurry one; all are in an almost constant state of flux except for those precious few that endure for a life-time.

Love in its broadest sense can be applied to all these connections. People love their friends and they love their kin but normally in a platonic way. So, is love just another emotional connection plus sex? Yes and no. Lust is an important part of love. It is in no way shallow to say that you must lust after your partner in some-way, it is just a fact. Remove lust and all you are left with is a close friendship. However, with just lust you are left with, in effect, a one night stand. Speaking personally I often find personality traits sexually interesting. To my mind some of the un-sexist people are often society’s deified icons of sex. Model's, for example, often have disturbingly vacant eyes something which turns me decidedly off. Loving somebody involves spending time with them outside the bedroom so it has to involve more than lust.

It's supposed monogamous nature is one of the great love myth's. Why is it perfectly socially acceptable to love more than one person in a friendship sense but not in a partner sense?