Love vs. Lust

In our minds love and lust dominate very different realms, whilst they intertwine within us, we like to think of them as separate, as two every different things that exists without any connection or reliance on the other. By the end of this article, you will know differently. I am about to show you how each of them is intrinsically connected to the other, and how the connection goes in both directions. Allow me to begin by talking about each of them in separation from the other.

Other relevant articles:

Love

There is nothing cleaner, simpler and more innocent seeming than love. Love is that which is real yet constantly elusive. Poets have tried to describe it with words, musicians have tried to express and emulate the emotion that it drives it through sound and song. Scientists have tried to dissect it, and religions have encapsulated its awe inspiring power by describing its divine nature. Let’s be honest, it is truly divine when experienced. There is no emotion or experience that can so drive someone, so inspire someone to both greatness and destruction. Wars have been launched because of it. Helen of Troy was so beautiful, so love inspiring that her mere presence in the world was the cause to launch 1,000 ships on their merry way to destruction… but this begs the question. If we think of love as clean and pure, was Helen of Tory inspiring of love, or was that in fact lust?

 

Lust

There is nothing more primal, more powerful rooted in our bestial selves than that of lust. When lust takes hold, were we to allow it to fully consume us in the moment, we would find ourselves once again like cavemen willing to burn, bulldoze or bash anything that stands between us and the object of our lust. We would want, we would take. Those that embrace their lust push aside the niceties of love, or soft words and flowers left to coax someone into their bed. Instead, they see, they want, they take. That is the drive of lust, the power that pushed you forward into physically wresting that which you want into your possession. Almost like someone that launches a thousand ships to war in order to have a woman… sounds familiar? This is where the real connection lies.

 

Love and lust, opposites that merge

If love is pure and clean, the supposed opposite of lust that is base and dirty, how can they be so closely entwined? I would argue that to have the most powerful of one, you need the other. To love someone so much that you are willing to go to war and die, you need to also be in lust with them, to want them from a base physical need. This also works the other way. To experience the most moving and immersive of lust, to really take someone into the bedroom, throw them on the floor and make sweet physical love to them (roughly), you need to actually be in love with them as the sentence describes intrinsically.

 

To truly experience one powerfully, you need the other. So if you are a romantic then embrace your inner beast, and if you are player, then allow a little love to bloom in your heart.