Ability to love
- Thread starter Soulful
- Start date
So the statement in the original post begs the question, do you love yourself?
Gotta murk that question, hang on...
Do you love yourself?
Do youlove
>>>Stuffing question in a suitcase and dumping it on the side of the road.<<<
Questions along that line usually precede some judgmental, passive aggressive low-blow. However generalized the statement was in the OP, I can't help but hear the more commonly heard version of "How can you love someone if you don't even love yourself!"
What does that even mean ...love yourself?? Do you love yourself a little, a lot, some days, most days, when you're drunk, when you're cheating in Algebra class, when you're yelling at your grandma or killing the baby seals? It's too subjective, who really does? Anyone who does immediately arouses suspicion in me. Are you really qualified to make that judgment call for yourself? I know a handful of self-destructive/hating types that would answer that question with a "Hells f***in yeah!"
How would the statement, "It is only by loving yourself that you can truly love others" apply to someone like Charles Manson? Something tells me he has a healthy dose of self-love.
Would you agree/disagree with this statement:
"it is by loving others that you can truly love yourself"
I'm not sure where I sit with these statements.
I do not know enough details about Charles Manson to refer to him, but generally speaking, I'm of the opinion that such acts are not committed in the presence of love.
I'm not sure that I can put it any better than any of you have. Absolutely, one must love themselves in order to love someone else. There have been lots of times in my life when I have been in a situation where there was somoene that I could have been with but wasn't, simply because I hated who I was. It wasn't that I went around actively understanding that I was pushing potential relationships away, but I wasn't comfortable enough with me to be comfortable with anyone else.
That being said, I think that the quote only really applies to being "in love" with someone else and not loving someone else. I mean, no matter how much I hated myself or who I was, I still loved, say, my mother. I loved my best friend. It wasn't until I truely was comfortable with who I was could I fall "in love."
Now, if we want to talk about the difference, I could just start a new thread. I would hate for this one to get derailed.
-PENGY
That being said, I think that the quote only really applies to being "in love" with someone else and not loving someone else. I mean, no matter how much I hated myself or who I was, I still loved, say, my mother. I loved my best friend. It wasn't until I truely was comfortable with who I was could I fall "in love."
Now, if we want to talk about the difference, I could just start a new thread. I would hate for this one to get derailed.
-PENGY
I think I agree. Without getting in too much explaining, I feel that if you don't have enough water to quench the thirst, one of you will remain thirsty. There is gotta be enough love for the both of you and from the both of you, 'tis my opinion.
Absolutely agree. This is the smallest building block of loving others. Without seeing yourself the beautiful and the ugly inside, accepting it, and nurturing it, you cannot do the same for another person. You will be blind leading the blind...in that you are lost inside and get even more lost in love. By knowing yourself, loving yourself, you know what to look for in a person to love, and in that act, you are able to truly love that person because they fit you and you know how to show them/ give them love.
I wonder if the ability to love oneself is correlated in any way to the amount of love you can give. Perhaps it is. Love certainly comes from the relationship you have with yourself first.
I wonder if the ability to love oneself is correlated in any way to the amount of love you can give. Perhaps it is. Love certainly comes from the relationship you have with yourself first.