ABSTRACT
Love is not a feeling but a verb, and an active verb at that. Romantic fluttering is a feeling; so is being needy, and craving the affection people hope is offered is a feeling. Being sexually stimulated and wanting their depression lifted is a feeling; swooning dizzily in what Sigmund Freud called a ‘transient psychosis’ is a feeling. Mother Teresa might be one cranky tyrant that people would prefer not to have a candle light dinner with. But she is the one picking up dying infants on the alleys of Calcutta. Love is a decision, an act of the will, translated into action. This decision is a life orientation, to be a loving person. It is rooted in one’s own experience of being relatively nurtured and capable of nurturing. Love is that total fundamental human act which integrates everything else, helping people to become more human. So no Valentines, thanks; but a short note is welcomed.
