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Essay Type: Definition

Topic #2: What is the true meaning of love?

Ali Kilinc – 900235909 – Final Paper

Mrs. Mandi Sena

ENG 191: Composition and Rhetoric – 3:30PM – 20424

10 December 2008

The True Meaning of Love

Human nature proves that one cannot survive without love in one’s

life. Love is all around people’s lives, usually leading people to overlook it

and take it for granted. Many people claim to be in love, claim to love, but in

reality do not have the slightest idea of what love actually is. Even though

the word love is used very loosely in the society of today, when one looks at

how many times one has asked oneself the true meaning of love, and

understands how little the question has been pondered, one sees the

problem. This problem can be remedied through defining love. Love is caring

about something or someone unconditionally, no matter what; that could be

a sport, a friend or a child.

Firstly, to truly excel in any particular sport, one must be in love with

that sport. Also, the athlete must love that sport with his mind, his body, as

well as his soul. This type of dedication is essential to becoming a national or

international athlete with any significance. For example, this can be seen in

the world of video games. Millions and billions of casual gamers claim to

“love” video games, even though they do not. The true love for video games
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can be seen in the lives of cyber-athletes. In their lives, those athletes wake

up in the morning to practice eight to twenty hours a day, seven days a

week, for months on end. Those players eventually rise to play at

international competitions and earn millions of dollars in the process. If those

athletes, as like all other athletes, were not in love with the sport, it would be

impossible for them to achieve such greatness. On another note, the love

friends have for one another can even surpass the love of any sport.

Secondly, true love can also be seen when a friend helps out another

friend. Friendships usually outlast any other sort of relationship one may

have in this world, thus leading one to understand that this would not be

possible if it were not for love. The love that two true friends have for one

another is quite unique. For example, on the one hand, if a woman suddenly

started gaining a great deal of weight, her husband could not, and should not

tell her for obvious reasons of self-confidence and self-consciousness. Her

best friend on the other hand, could tell her, and should tell her because she

needs to look out for her friend in need. Friends also help each other in the

tough times of one’s life, such as a divorce. Even though friends do not have

to help, they usually do, thus proving that sometimes the love that friends

have for one another is superior to the love of that two married people have

for one another. There are more powerful forms of love besides the love of

friendship, such as motherly love.0

Finally, the true meaning of love can most easily be seen when a

mother cares for her child. There is no human, man or women, on this planet
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that would be as strong as they are today without the love of his or her

mother. The love a mother possesses for her child transcends science as well

as mere logic. Psychology experts tried labeling it by calling it,

“Unconditional Positive Regard,” or UPR for short. UPR is exactly what it

insinuates at: unconditional. Otherwise, why would a woman deliberately

lower her body image in lieu of a brighter inner image, then cause pain to

herself, restrict her diet, restrict her activities, and gain weight for nine

consecutive months? Afterward, why would that same person risk death

during labor? There is only one answer, and that answer is the true meaning

of love. Nothing other than love would drive a person to such a sacrifice. A

mother sacrifices everything for her child: her friends, her family, her hopes,

her dreams, her life. What is most shocking out of all her deeds is that she

never has any regrets about anything that she has done for her child.

Love is everywhere. Human beings cannot survive without either being

in love or being loved. Even though love is all around, when one tries to

define it, it is not always seen in the ways or places where one expects it to

be. Mainly, it is not always seen in marriages. Many marriages end up in a

divorce, but when one looks around, looking for other places where love

might be, it can be easily seen, explained, and defined. The only thing that

person has to do is look at an Olympiad athlete, who never stops practicing,

or in true friends that never part and are always there for each other. True

love is most apparently seen in a mother caring for her child whom she

would never abandon. That is the true meaning of love.