What is love? and what does it mean to be loved?

Let say “love is the nature of existence.” It can be understood intellectually, but only fully explored by loving others and existence. Knowledge and understanding are participatory. If we have a child, we don’t first have a holistic philosophy on why we should love our child, but we simply have a fragmentary ideology towards love, and leap into the unknown of loving our child.

Love can be interpreted as the affirmation of the reality and “life design”/way of living of the other person, which owes nothing to anyone and, according to Erich Fromm is not only directed at a person, but an attitude and connection with the world as such and thus a field in which philia and Eros can become agape, therefore requires no or minimal interference.

We can clear blockages for them out of the way, but have no need to shape somethings according to our images in order to confirm ourselves in them. And more abstractly, love means everything that we unite with, that changes, enriches, temporarily dissolves the subject-object or subject-subject relationship, shifts perspectives, etcetera. This can also relativize our own subjective position and framework of values/   lense of reality and help us to tune in more to the other person (and to see their real requirements and needs).

Nevertheless, we cannot be more than just visitors to each other. This also applies to our children, who should become their own personalities and who are not there to fulfill our goals or acknowledge our worldviews.

In this way we cause our life, their live, humanity and existence itself to become more loving and beautiful. It is in this same way we must approach existence, understanding, truth and love itself. Love towards others and existence itself is common sense, and even if we die or are killed loving other and existence, the world will be moved in a more loving and beautiful direction.

What does this type of love mean? Of course it is radical. It means another way of life, turning the other cheek, giving the shirt off your back and sacrifice. Yet the more we understand, the more we participate in loving others and existence, the less we see it as sacrifice and the more we see it as simply living in harmony with the nature of existence.