The Silent Force

Well, I don't really know what "true love" is, so it is hard to say if I believe in it or not. Nothing is perfect or absolutely ideal, and people are flawed, so obviously there is not a happily-ever-after, and I seriously doubt that there are matches where both love absolutely everything about one another. The closest I have come to it (in friendship), I think, is being willing to go to great lengths for others, having them willing to do almost anything for me, and being very forgiving and accepting (cutting a lot of slack).

It seems to me that an individual's idea of love is based upon what one experienced growing up in one's family. There will always be a strange draw to various traits in both friendships and relationships that mirror those in our family members. If a person learns that enduring or dealing out pain is love, that is what they will look for. If one was often ignored by one's parents, he or she will tend to seek out aloof partners or someone who will cheat on them. If someone had a mixture of over-control and abandonment, he or she will look for domineering partner who likes his or her space or a clingy person who will eventually leave or get you to leave them. Maybe this dynamic is only present in unhealthy upbringings and there is more of a chance at a happy, fulfilling relationship in the future if a child is raised in the best possible way. Otherwise, people will usually seek out someone (at their worst) like the parent or sibling whose love mattered the most, then try to make them into what they wanted them to be, which isn't very likely to happen...

As it is said, the opposite of love is hatred, not indifference, so to be hated intensely in the aftermath, so much so that the person ruminates over these negative feelings for years, must mean that the individual cared a great deal in the beginning.

gilwellian

True love is utopia for all.

We are always looking for love but living for lust. Ha!

Shivercide

I've always believed in love in general. I never used to believe in a one-true-love sort of thing, though. Now I do, and can't see it any other way.

I don't believe this is related to the idea of love at all, but a self-worth issue. Being raised in a painful and degrading sort of way kind of etches in a person that is what they are worth. And it doesn't apply to everyone who's been through such things as a child (as far as ending up in the same kind of relationships throughout life), I'm an example of that.

Actually as it is said, the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Or apathy.

SweetHollowSacrifice

I don't believe in everyone having a single person who is perfect for them in every way. I do, however, believe that everyone has some sort of personality-build that they are attracted to whether they like it or not. That's not always true though- I do think there are people who have no one they love.

So I do believe in love as a general feeling- I've felt it enough to know it's not some dilusional version of friendship or whatever, but not TRUE love or that there will ever be two people completly perfect for eachother. We all have flaws, as well as our relationships.

Scott

The whole one true love thing is fate talk, and given it's fate, it's outside probabilities and observation, if it exists (which I don't think it does). Then I can say that you can't know who your one true love is until you die. You could have some idea, but the current love could still hurt you or be surpassed by another.

Say you have all mediocre relationships in your life and one good (not great) one. Is the good one your one true love? Or did you not meet your one true love? That invalidates the fate thing which a one true love relies on, unless your one true love doesn't need to return it. But in this example, what of the good (not great) relationship? Or is it some bizarro half-fate?

Also, what's to believe? Why does love require belief in it? It's a physical fact.

Hatred is more reasonable than indifference in contrast to love?

For clarification, when I use the term "one true love", I'm referring to the idea that one person is meant for somebody.

LovenPeace

I believe in love as a way that you can fall in love with someone. But people judge that too much and abuse the word. Using the word love is like using the word hate, don't say it unless you mean it. In a relationship manner of course. I have been in love and too me it's something that develops with someone over a period of time. It doesnt happen over night. But love can also be very painful.

I don't believe in one true love, like I said I loved before, but I don't believe he is the one for me.

Lady Godiva

Nope, i don't believe in love. I think it's just something that we do. Pure illusion, fantasy, dunno. Though it doesn't mean that i couldn't have a relationship, is just that i'm so rational, that for me is too hard to believe love could exist.

shards-of-me

Some fall in love at first look, some never find it. Some confuse like for love.
Here are some words from a song called Cooling by Tori Amos, one of my top fave singers of all time.
.....so then love walked up to like
said i know that you don't like me much
let's go for a ride....

Rocksatyourwindow

Yeah, true love exists.
Who's said the person you love needs to be like you?
If you're looking for someone like you, you'd better be single, and love yourself.
My boyfriend and I are quite different. What he first liked about me was that "I was crazy" and what I liked about him was that I found him mysterious, interesting, like he was not the kind of person who talks about himself to everyone, and I sort of wanted to be part of his mistery. Our relationship is not technically perfect, but it is for me. Every time we disagree on something, I have something new to think about, something to learn.
I think you can say you know and love someone when you've seen them cry, when you've had a row with someone and still want them, you know... it's hard to tell, but it's something that goes beyond flaws and words. You just feel it, know it.
True love exists. It doesn't mean that you can't mistake some other feeling for love. Or rather I should say that people have different definitions of love. Besides, I think that love might fade away. You can love more than one person in your life, and still call it true love. Some people need to go through life and love and suffer to discover something new about themselves, and something new about what they think love is. As time goes by, we learn and make changes and make decisions, but the people we leave behind have all been a part of the path we build that will (luckily) lead us to the person that lives up to our definition of love.

metalman

I think what most people think of as love, or there true love, is just a chemical reaction in there brain which in time, fades out to the same feelings we have toward our best Friend.

You all know what I'm talking about. the butterfly's in the stomach when you see her, the nervousness you feel around her. that unfortunately, fades away.

I think a lifetime relationship is a long term effort on both parts to compromise, share and consider each others feelings, often when making all decisions in life. most people fail miserably at this, and just go over and over with the first part of a relationship( the chemically induced exciting part) and when it fades, think that it has run its course, usually because they have hit a rough patch And cant talk there problems through.

For me, true love is what I feel for my wife, the feeling of our singular existence, the knowledge that I can happily and willfully spend the rest of my days with her, the fact that although we are very different to one another, we respect each others interests and encourage them.

She keeps me in check, I help her relax and chill out. Thanks to my wife, I have a better life than I could have ever put together by myself. when I think of this, it makes me love her even more.