Love Hurts

Love hurts. As much as you'd want to disagree, I stick to my point. You'll claim that love's that inexplicable feeling that pushes you to explore the Eden of Happiness. I say that it's the same love that plunges you into the abysses of depression.

Love hurts. From the time two souls (mother and child, lovers, friends, well-wishers, fans, siblings, etc) set eyes on each other, their journey of deprivation, aches and pain begins. For lovers (the term I use here to describe any two people in love) have nights depriving them of sleep, hearts aching to meet each other (or at least have a glimpse of the other) and unbearably painful moments of separation.

Intimacy in a relationship brings pain with the pleasure. A mother slaps her erring child, only to cuddle him/her later. Friends, who were getting along with each other perfectly well, suddenly start bad-mouthing each other over a game of soccer. Why, even the ultimate unification of two souls, a symbol of love that science calls copulation and we call sex is about pain. You may say the high it gives is worth the pain (and the effort). But pain, bearable or not, is pain nonetheless. Told you, love hurts.

Love hurts more when it comes unprecedented. Like the idea of falling in love when you realise that you shouldn't have fallen in love. Either you got the person wrong or the occasion, falling in love hurt you bad. Love hurts more when the person you love dies or when love itself dies. You ask yourself, "Can love really vanish?" or "Can you really get over someone?" or "After death will the ties of love break too?" There are more questions than answers love throws up. Love hurts, but it also makes you think.


I read somewhere, "Love lasts a lifetime. Money lasts longer. It pays for the funeral." Strange, funny, but it's true. Love can't buy you a wreath, it can only find you someone to call in the hearse. Money puts things in perspective. It changes the way you love a person, how much you love him/her and how you show how much you love him/her. Money is dynamic. It changes from hand to hand, in its denomination and value. It gives you a sense of power and a means of disposal. Pit money against love and love will inevitably lose. Love hurts, that's why.

In many ways love is like currency. It too has value that changes according to ambient conditions. Why then, must love lose?

Because you give love and take money. Nobody likes giving money away. While love requires you to give. You can't give less love but you do want to make more money. As money accumulates, love depreciates in value. Don't believe this? Track history. Corporate wars fought between business heirs over company assets, treacherous siblings plotting wars to grab the throne, kids fighting for the latest (and more expensive) video game, socialite friends trying to outdo each other while shopping for expensive designer gowns, etc. Love makes you win small battles, money makes you win the biggest wars. Love hurts, because it's competitive.

The problem with love is that it hurts both ways - when there's too much of it or too little of it. With money, it's the less that hurts .

So if love hurts so much why love? For it is in giving that we may receive. Give money away, money may or may not come back to you (it's quite deceitful). Give love away, it'll always come back. So what if it hurts a little!