The L-word ?

Oh yes. The L-word.

I am feeling philosophical today, excuse my ranting.

The L-word. What is it, really? Love, some says. The L-word is love. But why love? Love is a positive thing, or so they say. I beg to differ. Yes, love can be the single most wonderful thing in the world. But, it can also destroy you. Nothing hurts more than to love someone and not be loved back. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return". Who says we all will be loved in return?
Why does love have to be a positive word? Love destroys people. Love leads to broken hearts. I met a boy, who I was willing to commit to long-distance. Nothing happened, because he was afraid of love. He is afraid of loving and comitting to another person. He told me, straight out, that if we became an item, and then broke up, he wouldn't survive it, literally. Did I mention that this guy suffers from a severe depression. He nearly tried killing himself when his last girlfriend ended it. He is afraid of loving, because he knows it might hurt him.

The L-word. If it's not love, then what is it? Life? Learning? Living? Or on a more negative note; Loathing? Yes, love is a strong emotion, but so is loathing. Have you ever tried loathing someone so much, you felt it with every fibre of your being? No, me neither. Thank God for that - I hope I never get to experience something like that.

TV says that the L-word is lesbian. There's a fantastic tv-show called "The L-word", and to sum it up, it's kinda like "Sex & the City" but with lesbian main characters. It's about lesbian women and their lives and loves and how they get by. Every person is different - the ex-druggie, the tennis-star, the independent woman, the gallery-owner, the butch girl, the femme; you name it. But is it really that easy to define who a person is, by labelling them like I just did? Because there's more to people than just that. Shane is an ex-druggie, yes. But she's also one of the best hairdressers, who serve multiple clients, highclass as well as lowclass, dreaming about her own shop someday. Should we really let our past define who we are, or even more, who people label us as?

I say no. The L-word is about people telling you who to be and what you're capable of or not. That was proved by Susan Boyle, a Scottish woman who surprised everyone by entering the stage of "Britain's got Talent", plain as she looked, and singing like an angel. She dreamed of singing professionally, and everyone scoffed, finding it hard to believe that this woman could sing well, until she opened her mouth and sang. Susan Boyle followed her dreams, and now they've come true. She followed her Love for singing. She found her own L-word.

The L-word must mean something different to each of us, then, I believe. One person's Love, another person's Loathing. One person's Life, another person's Learning. The L-word is undefineable without the shades of grey that are important for every creature to be unique.

There's an L-word for all of us. We just have to figure it out for ourselves.