‘’When did it happen that those shadows left hands which were so tightly clasped till last time the sun was up?’’
‘Love’, everybody hears this word a countless number of times in a day. Does anyone ruminate over what it actually stands for? The meaning it held for the millennials and the meaning it holds for the Gen-Z would be a mirror image. The word is small but the meaning is boundless and no definition can suffice and do justice to it. But is it really evolving? Has it changed its meaning over time? Why is it becoming so different when comes to Gen-Z? These are the questions that need to be addressed to think about why has limited itself and who is to be blamed.
Limitlessness in love
The most important factor to look up to is that love is not just limited to something that two individuals carry for each other. One can love oneself, their things, their food, trees around them or to simplify, love can be what a poet has for his poetry. These are sometimes stronger than what one feels for a person. Love is not static, it is flux and it flows like a river and spreads happiness all along its way.
Now, there are times when the young generations mix up attraction or like with love. Love has a purity that is overlooked and it is important that be it a child or an adult, one should definitely understand and maintain the sanctity which comes with it. Randomly calling a phase of your life ‘love’ does nothing other than just compromise its already ambiguous self.
Loving a person or a thing is an art in itself. The reason to call it art is that not everybody has the capability of loving altruistically. Selfless is the other name for love. One has to keep the arms wide open to accept and top keep on accepting without letting the love change its essence.
Position of love over-time
The passing of decades has surely affected the notions of love and love. These, as many have noticed are visible in the romantic movies when compared to Gen-Y and Gen-Z.
Earlier, the movies showed the individuals intently and gradually admiring the whole process of falling in love. Haste, if it was there, still it had a way for it. Comparing it with the newer notions, new movies show two random people coming together and keeping it casual. This is not to be judgmental of the entire generation, but the scenario is such that keeping up with the earlier notions is difficult.
The knowing and meeting process has also seen some change as earlier the meetings were all in-person so everything used to be put out there, in front. It is funny as well as saddening to see the effect of technology on building relationships too.
Most of the time, the people get to know each other online but there is one issue in hand, that these platforms are just too shady. Knowing someone through their Instagram or tinder bio is just secretive as any secret bill. Spending time together is another thing which is eloping with time. From meetings to dates to confessing the feelings, anything and everything can be done in a click just like typing these words.
Emotions are there too but not as expressive as could’ve been in person. The world is changing and so are we and so is the way of loving and expressing. The question is, shall we be content or remorse over the lost era?
Patchy desires
The change is also evident in the form of expression and the way love is made all about physical relationships.
As teenagers, the truth is that a relationship is not about physical pleasure but it is more than that. Who are the people who truly connect? What is that ‘special thing’ that makes it all work? A woman and a man or any two individuals [despite their sex] complete each other by becoming headstrong pillars for each other and this idea is the one we are moving away from.
One day comes as a day of realization when after waking up, a person craves the presence of that one individual whose eyes are enough to light up their day and whose touch is enough to make them feel complete. That realization makes that person thank the universe for bestowing such a blessing in form of love.
That moment would be to make one understand that life is a little over temporary pleasures and a little more about emotions. Every pleasure is meant to serve some purpose, so has carnal pleasure, but that day surely comes when one realizes that ultimately everything is about loving a heart and a mind and not one’s body. A person matters, a presence matters as the whole life cannot be limited to a few moments of pleasure. Life is all about riding on a roller-coaster; scary but enjoyable.
Can love be fake?
This is the question grappling the young individuals. Can we call something temporary love? Well! Maybe, it is an entirely personal feeling that one share with another.
Love is immortal, it can never die. Even if one tries to kill it, its remnants stay forever and haunt the individual when they try to repress it. It is a whole plethora of emotional play but, as it is, it stays forever. Little hurdles cannot make it vanish in the thin air, it is not so weak in itself. While loving someone, one gives their all. Once given, that portion can’t be taken back. This is the beauty and complexity of loving and giving one’s all.
So, indeed the term ‘love’ is evolving, but the essence it holds will always remain the same. Human beings and all the organisms exist to love and to fulfill the promises and some things are always there which remain old-school and thankfully human nature and its relationship with giving and expressing love is one of its kind.
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You are amazing writer. That’s coming along nicely . Keep up the good work .