love

I’ve had several interesting discussions tonight on love and the nature of it. I know what my opinions are, or at least I think I think I do.  I have been in love exactly once, no more, no less. I’ve liked and/or dated plenty of other people, but none of them  have ever made me feel the way that the guy I loved did.  I’m fairly sure that I fell in love with him before I knew that he felt the same about me, but one of my friends seems to think that you cannot be “in love” unless both parties feel the same way about each other… in other words, it takes two to tango. I was lucky that the person I loved also loved me, but I have also been on the recieving end of unrequited love.  I’m fairly sure that love is real, and love can be wonderful, or it can hurt, but how can you really tell if you’re in love or not? The more I think about it, the more I wonder if I really loved him, or if love even exists at all.  Is love an emotion or a state of mind? Or is emotion a state of mind? Are any of us happy, sad, angry, embarassed, in love… or do we just believe we are, and since we believe that happiness should feel like this or sadness should feel like that, we convince ourselves that we have those symptoms.  If I were to rip my pants in gym class, I would believe that I should feel embarrassed, and since society has taught me that embarassment causes one’s cheeks to flush red, and for one’s face to feel hot, and for one to get an awful knot in one’s stomach, then I would cause myself to have those symptoms, and would, in effect be embarassed.  In the same respect, if I believed that I should have feelings of love when I’m around a certain person, then I will cause myself to feel love and believe that I’m in love.  The only flaw to this theory is that no one knows what love feels like, and those that think they do can’t describe it.  Thus I am led to the conclusion that either love does not exist, or it is the only emotion that does exist. Thoughts anyone?