Loves

There exists in this world 4 loves, 4 unique and special loves. Listed in no order of merit, but perhaps in the order of significance to me, they are: agape, storge, philia and eros.

Storge is the familial love. Philia on the other hand is the love between friends. Eros, the root word of "erotic" suggests a sexual nature to the love one experiences.

What strikes me most, however, is the power of agape.

Agape, the love of self-sacrifice, the unconditional love, the love that keeps on giving and never taking. It is active, voluntary and thoughtful, never wanting anything in return but is passionately committed to the pure need for the person you love to be happy.

It is beautiful.

It is a genuine affection with nothing more than just love. It wants happiness in the person you love, wanting to take away the ill feelings that he or she might be having. Agape dictates that you don't feel a sense of loss or pain when you make the sacrifices for the person you love.

Sacrifices in this world are aplenty. In the road of life, where imprints are left in the soft ground, sacrifices linger in each and every step. It's just a matter of whether they decide to show themselves to the world or remain hidden.

Indeed, love, a pure true love like agape, is patient. It waits and can wait till the end of eternity.

Neither does it boast, nor is it proud.

Sacrifices, truly worthy sacrifices, need not be shown to the world. Even the person you make the sacrifices for does not need to know. But with such sacrifices comes sweet sadness, a bewitching pain that is not explainable.

My friend asked me whether such pain and sadness stems from hesitance, a nagging feeling that you don't actually want to make such sacrifices.

Somehow, I don't think so. Hesitance, the slightest bit of it, will taint this love, a irremovable stain on the snow white exterior. It makes the pain and sadness bitter, it leaves you jaded with the world. It gnaws at your heart till you don't believe in anything anymore, when love just seems like a cruel twist of fate.

Then would that be agape? No.

As with everything in this world, there is no such thing as a win-win situation. It is a zero sum game, where you are never for the better. Agape then seems to come with happiness and sadness, contentment and loss, pleasure and pain.

Love is said to be an investment. An investment of time and genuine emotions. We would expect a certain rate of return on any investment, why not this one? It doesn't make sense now does it? How can there be a love so pure, a love so genuine that all one needs when in such a love is that the person he loves is happy no matter what he feels?

I can't explain it. No one can.

I am sure however that it is blissful. Until you experience it for yourself, until you have tasted of the sweet fruit of agape, you have existed, but not lived.