What's love?

Personal Opinion:

'Love' is the combination of three separate factors; lust, attraction and attachment.

Lust is the initial passionate sexual desire that includes the more 'thrilling' aspects of love. Lust is the aspect of love that involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen. The effects of pure lust rarely last more than a few weeks or months.

Attraction is the more specific romantic desire of a certain individual. Attraction develops out of lust as commitment to an individual forms.

Due to the temporary nature of both attraction and lust, a third component must be factored in to explain long term relationships.

The final component of 'love' is attachment. Attachment is a bond that draws two individuals to each other based on care and devotion. It is is the aspect of love that includes marriage, children and further commitments.This component of love includes the realistic aspects of a long term relationship and addresses the fact that a steady relationship needs to be based on more than pure physical attraction. Factors such as similar interests, intellectual stimulation, acceptance and the ability to forgive are crucial to completing the definition of 'love' and are classified under the umbrella of 'attachment''. Often during the stage of attachment a mutual friendship forms. These many elements of attachment, in addition to lust and attraction, are the fundamental aspects of 'love'.

Then there is that typical cliché attribute of love. That something 'more', thought to be indescribable. I, however, will try my best to explain this phenomena as soon as I have felt it, sometime in the distant future - there's the pessimist in me speaking.