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RE: Go Solo, or find a person to live with that lives up to your standards. Don't love unconditionally

in #life7 years ago (edited)

Good post! Even Greek society split "love" into two kinds: Romantic love and "agape," or universal/brotherly love:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape

Funny how modern English doesn't have language to express this dualism - similar to the concepts of tatamae and honne in Japan. It's totally possible to "love" mankind as a whole while loathing individuals - the New Age notion that "love and light" has to be extended to all individuals is, as you note, pure bunk at best and harmful at worst.

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Interesting. Yeah, even in Norway we have a word for brotherly love so to speak. "Glad i deg". The closest word in English must be "I care for you" . "Elsker deg" is "Love you" which is very very strong in Norwegian. Something you only say to certain people, and for many very hard to say. But "glad i deg/care for you" is not as strong. It means love, but more casually thrown around - yet, not something you say to your buddy while you fistpump.