Day 30 - Love Kills Slowly

So, I was looking for some art to use for today's entry, and I came across this piece.  Naturally it distrubed me, because it speaks negatively about the thing that I feel brings meaning and life to our very existence.  Taking it a step further, I decided to look up potential meanings for this (other than the obvious), and on Yahoo! Answers, I found the following comments:

• it means that when ever you fall in love you can die from the pain
• In my opinion, every time you love , you die a little. When you give a piece of your heart, soul and mind you can never get that piece back. Metaphorically you are giving a piece of yourself every time you love and it kills you slowly over time.
  That is how I interpret it. If you have been hurt by someone you love, as in cheated on, dumped, you die a little quicker..
• love is a passionate fire that burns down to smouldering ruins...
  hmmm... like a log in that fire we burn with the passion of love... the flames slowly consuming us... till we are ashes of the fire....

These answers might be a bit more disturbing than the art itself.  They all speak to love as an agent of death, whether from the pain it causes or fleeting nature of love.  I will say again - love is not a skip through the fields of butterflies and bunnies, but love is not the problem.  Issues arise in love when other things (like fear, insecurity, manipulation, control, etc) come in and disguise themselves by saying "I love you."  

It is my belief that real love makes life more bearable and more full.  When you feel truly loved and you truly love someone else, it creates a freedom and a joy that is not only priceless but life-giving.  Whether it's love from God which is boundless and wise, love from parents/guardians that is protective and affirming, love from friends that is encouraging and supportive, love from a significant other that is accepting and intimate, love in its healthiest forms breathes strength into life.  When you never know real love, the most important part of you - your heart - lacks the life-blood necessary.  You can live to be 125 years old, but without love, it is merely existing, and those will be 125 miserable years.

Of all the things that love does, it does not kill.  If what you are calling love is killing someone (or parts of them), then it needs to be re-evaluated.