I have no stats on this (and they say you can find anything on the internet) but I bet 3 out of 5 people would hesitate or begin their sentence with, “like…” if you asked them to define the word ‘love’. I think the problem is that when we use that word, it’s in a different context every time. There isn’t one ‘type’ of love but if it’s one word I’m pretty sure there should be a communal or general definition that could encompass all ‘forms’ of love.

There’s a story I once heard about an old lady who was walking in the street with her grandchild, the young boy ran into the street and a car crashed into him. The thing is, though, the car landed up on top of the kid and the old lady (dude, please remember she’s ‘grandmother old’) ran onto the street and came through like Captain America! She lifted the car off of the boy and obviously saved his life. Some say it was adrenaline that gave her the superhuman strength but there must have been a driving force. I say it must have been love.

My personal opinion on mothers is that they must be aliens. I have no idea it’s possible for one person to just have it all figured out the way mother’s do. They do the nicest things for the people in the family, honestly. It’ll be a winter afternoon and I’ll be in my room listening to music or reading a book or whatever it is I do with my time and she’ll come through with a bowl of soup, I didn’t even ask for it or do anything to deserve it; she just thinks about me all the time and cares enough to come through for me even when it’s unexpected.

I think the craziest thing about that is I’ve done my mom wrong a couple of times (and I’m not proud of that) but she forgives me easy and still comes through for me. It must be love.

And what about the boy? Or the girl? It’s crazy to believe that someone you once upon time didn’t know is here with you now and really does their best to be good enough for you and good to you. You know yourself, you act crazy and unreasonable sometimes (don’t deny it, this is a safe space). I think for someone to stay with you when they don’t have to, to know how to handle you when you get how you get, to want to do the absolute most to get you to smile and to just have this undying urge to want to make you happy HAS GOT TO BE LOVE.

So what do these three examples of love really have in common? From these three situations, can we establish a working definition that we can use to define all three in the same wording?

It comes as no surprise that the very first definition I come up with is “God is love”. I grew up in a Christian household and started Sunday School before I started actual school so a lot of my initial thoughts would be from what I learnt back then. They got me early. Anyway, I would define ‘God’ has a higher power that brings things into existence (like my very being).

God is love.

Love is God.

Love is a higher power that brings things into existence. By use of substitution, this is the definition I come up with and I quite like it. I like the fact that it defines love as a ‘higher power’ because you can’t help it when you love someone, it really just does come upon you. It’s also said that it brings things into existence, like a superhuman ability to lift cars or the ability to be able to forgive and show kindness even when it’s undeserved and even the unexplainable urge to want to become a better person for the sake of someone else.

So try that the next time someone asks you what love is.

*****

Right, so that’s the end of the article. I have no nicknames so I genuinely am a bit lost when it comes to this signature thing. Also, not sure if it can be a sentence or whaaat but here we go:

Thendo (I really like this one)