To Love, Be Loved

My favorite love movie of all time is Moulin Rouge, it isn't a classic (yet), but it really does some justice to defining love. The movie's tagline, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return," has so much truth and meaning to it that I have found in my own personal life. It has so much meaning to it for me that I have it tattooed onto the side of my body. I really do believe one of the best things you can learn and experience in life is to love someone and to have someone love you back. This quote lays it all out in the most simplest terms. Simplicity at its finest.

Now when this quote or my tattoo come up in conversation, many times I am asked, what kind of love do I think is the best to experience? This is when I get stomped and unsure of what the answer is. Well......what kinds of love are there?

After reading Robert Sternberg's triangular theory of love, it helped to put my uncertainty into more perspective. Sternberg believes that there are 3 major elements of love: intimacy ("I feel really close this person"); passion ("I'm crazy about this person"); and commitment ("I really want to stay with this person"); (Lilienfeld P. 448). When each element is coupled with another element, it creates one form of love; there should be a total of 7 forms. When all three elements are combined, they make the most perfect and complete form of love.

I don't like to use the word "perfect" to describe things, but I do agree that having a combination of those 3 feelings about someone and someone having all 3 of those feelings for you back really touches my quote right on the money.

After learning about this theory, I am able to answer the question I never really could before; what love is the best to experience? It isn't the only answer out there but it is one that works for me.