Foreword: Love simply is

It has become a tradition that everything I write must have something to do with love.

It is as if, without that wellspring of inspiration, the words themselves will lose all colors.

Yet, what is love, really?

Under usual circumstances, the reaction of most people is to associate love with the feelings of affection and passion between two unrelated adults. Then they will also acknowledge the love that existed among families, especially those between a mother and a child. Some then quickly associate love with friendships.

For most people who are not in the divine business, love can only exist between people that know each other. It is logically so. I mean, how can anyone love someone that he or she doesn't know?

But stop there for a moment.

Is it possible to love a stranger? Could it be possible that love must exist before you can know any person? A simple example is the classic "love-at-first-sight". When you meet someone for the first time, and you find the person attractive, you'll naturally want to know the person, and you'll take action if the attraction is strong enough. So in that case, love actually exists before the knowledge of another person exists.

You could argue, that attraction must exist and it has nothing to do with love. But another simple way to look at it is that love has always existed. Your judgement on the person of whether he is attractive determines whether you deny that love.

This is of course, one of many ways of looking at things.

But for me, there is no answer to that question, because love simply is.

Just like bird must fly and fish must swim, we human must love.

(Inspired by "The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho)