Lately I have been contemplating love and hate, mostly love. Why do people do the things they do for love? I am always baffled by the amount of PDA in Provo. I have a theory about it though. I think that with the strict chastity rules in place, couples feel they must proclaim their love more openly through as much PDA as possible. If they are willing to display their affection so openly, they must be in love. That is why so many couples make out in living rooms in front of roommates and guests, cuddle in the park very noticeably, and walk around in a constant hug. I think couples outside of Provo display their affection more discreetly and privately to each other instead of to the world. Being a couple in Provo is a status symbol. Couples feel they must proclaim to their affection to gain a higher status in the eyes of their peers. I think its all just a bunch of huey. It is annoying and disgusting to witness day after day.
My cousin and I talked about love and crushes. She had another theory that I think is very true. Groups of friends are friends only because someone has a crush on another member of the group. The group stays together because of the crush. The friends of the one crushing on another are the wing-men or wing-women and they just support the crush. When the crush wears off, the group falls apart unless it is large enough so another develops between others in the same group.
I went and saw "He's just not that into you." I think it was Sheryl that really enjoyed the book and told me about it. Since that time, I have wanted to read the book to see what it was about. Then I heard that the movie was being produced and it became a priority on my list of movies because of how much Sheryl said she liked the concept. After watching the movie, I realized that females do all of the crazy stuff the movie explained. I have done many of the things the movie stated. But even with all of the crazy stuff I have done, I recognized many qualities of myself in Justin Long's character. I don't think I would recognize a relationship if it hit me on the head. I am always the last to know that a guy is interested and the quickest to drop my crush if I decide that he isn't interested in me. I recognized many of my friend's relationships in that movie.
Also, it is amazing how much the world revolves around love and lust. In biology classes, professors state that the main roles of animal species is first-survival, and second-reproduction. I think humans act very similar in this aspect. It seems like the world revolves around love or lust. How many movies, books, songs, poems, commercials, other entertainment and other literature deal with love or lust. What is that old saying? Sex sells. Well it seems like its true. Lust and love are not the same thing. Most people search for love but seem to settle for lust. Its terribly sad that people settle for things that are beneath them. Why not search for the better things in life?
I just finished reading the Scarlet Letter. There were a few good quotes from the book, but here is one good one. "Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility" (chapter XIII). Hatred and love are so closely related. They are both very strong feelings of passion and the one can very easily turn into the other. I have realized that I have never really hated anyone, but I like this quote. It reminds me of how my dislikes of people are very similar to this situation. My irritation remains as long as the person continually irritates me. Once, I am away from the irritation or it ceases, my dislike of the person ebbs and slowly disappears. It doesn't always turn into love like the quote states. But I think hatred turns into love and love into hatred very quickly.
These are my current thoughts on love and hate.
