Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Talk about Love and Liking

This morning, the article "Desires, Pleasures and the gift of Love" caught my attention.

The interesting point is, the author brought up some 'grey' terms - love and liking. So, what's the difference? He brought in CS Lewis' "The Four Loves" which further arouses my interest to look at it further - so, they are namely: Affection (storge), Friendship (philia), Eros and Caritas (agape).

A new way of expressing - when we say we like/love.... it means we take pleasure in... and there are 2 groups of pleasures! those that are preceded by desire, and those that are not... hahaha... sounds chim I thought. But the example that follows explains pretty clearly (I thought):
  • An example when the pleasure is preceded by desire - that I thought it's linked to the need - water - a glass of water is a great pleasure when one's desire to have it is because of thirst... when the need is addressed, the degree of pleasure it brings with it drops tremendously.
  • On the other hand, a pleasure not preceded by desire would be the frangrance of flowers... oh yes, that reminded me of the mornings when I was greeted by the donkey, the frangrance of the wild flowers and wild grass, the glittering sounds of the river - water dashing across... the sunshine that's accompanied by the cool breeze... those were the days in Paro... I miss them! The smell of the ancient wooden bridge... It was really great pleasure :D

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