What Is Love?

What is love? What a loaded and electrifying question!

"What Is Love?" happens to be the title of an enjoyable, enlightening book I got at Carpe Librum this past Spring when Bill and I played music there. The sub-title is "A Simple Guide To Romantic Happiness". The book’s author is Taro Gold. He’s written a number of other books, as well. I just visited his website at www.TaroGold.com for the first time. It is awesome. In particular, his February 7th update is soul-touching. Taro appears to be a very young man. So how he can already be so wise about such a mind-boggling topic as love is amazing. He is telling me, in his book, things I’ve tried to figure out myself, maybe have figured out myself, but needed someone else to articulate or validate for me. The book approaches the topic from a Buddhist standpoint, acknowledging and aligning the fantasy, illusion, reality, and core truths that make and/or break romantic love. There are numerous pages of fabulous quotes throughout the pages of text; they run the gamut of profundity, humor, and so much more and they’ve come from a wide variety of sources. It’s hard to choose a favorite of these quotes and I thought I would pick one to include here, but found, instead, I need to include three of them. The first is "People change and then forget to tell each other" – Lillian Hellman; the second is "Love one another; but make not a bond of love; let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls"– Kahlil Gibran; the third is "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance"– Oscar Wilde.

This is a beautiful and wondrous little book and I heartily recommend it to anyone who loves, ever has loved, or would like to!