Life Lesson 1: Few people understand "love"

One fact that always sticks in my mind whenever anyone mentions the "l" word to me, is one that I was told by a man who was much wiser than me. Malcolm told me that the Greek's had no less than seven words which when translated give the English word love. In English we have one.

Now let's consider this shall we? There was "eros" - or erotic love - and a whole spectrum that spread to "cupidos" - or true love. Even when trying to express their meaning, I fail because my lexicon is insufficient. It's a relative strength of mine to have a good vocabulary when it comes to written work thanks largely to a voracious reading appetite as a child that stood me in good stead for adulthood. Yet I cannot find any other words for different degrees of love.

When I mentioned this to a less articulate person, they quipped about infatuation or crush and my explanation of how they weren't actually love because they generally implied - amongst other things - a one-sided attraction.

Today I saw an advertisement for a film starring Russell Brand (by the way - he's not married to the comedienne Jo Brand as I initially presumed) and because I was bored, I searched for a picture of him. He's a good looking chap with a whole cohort of past girlfriends he has gone through - and there was more than a few that described his new "love".

This angered me. Perhaps, I thought, this is the reason behind the stratospheric level of divorce in this country. Once upon a time, marriage was a covenant between a man and a woman, with the aim of never being broken. I honestly believe that divorce is inevitable in most couple's lives. There are so many reasons a marriage fails, but often people have too high an expectation from things. People are often arrogant and a little too self-assured, meaning that it is only when they reach a ripe old age whereby their attractiveness is waning that they begin to realise that they had better cling on to their partner. Lack of respect for each other is another reason - and I believe the strongest cause of breakups. In the old days, people took their time about such matters as finding a partner, and when they married it was a much more formal symbol.

People today have more freedom than ever, and yet it has brought much misery on the traditional family unit. Perhaps if we actually understood exactly what love is - we would be able to solve some of these problems. The Greeks certainly had a go at it - yet we overlook history - or those that do remember think that today's generation doesn't need to know about it. We are doomed to repeat the mistakes of history - and no doubt in a few centuries we'll have a distinctive system that categorises relationships. Possibly we'll have a better way of educating people not to make mistakes with love. People will not hurt each other by being stuck in relationships where there is not the right kind of love - they'll know the definition of it and be able to make more informed judgements. The cry of "but she/he says they love me" will cease to be an excuse or justification used by the many. Until then, I love you all. Peace.