Love: is it worth it?

Eros.

Philia.

Agape.

Storge.

Love.

No matter how you say it, love exists as a reaction to another person/object with pleasure.

The feeling we call love stems from a release of various hormones in the brian. I don't mean to get annoyingly scientific, but it's true--love is the result of copious amounts of hormones being dumped into the bloodstream. Therefore, the feeling could (if we wanted to do it) be manufactured.

So is it all that special?

 I don't know.

And I'm not equipped to answer that.

But, I have another question:

is it worth it?

Is letting your personal happiness fall contingent upon another person logical or worth the inevitable pain?

We love our dogs.

Then cry when we have to put them down.

We love our spouses.

Then are wracked with jealousy when they look at another person

or we suffer heart-break when they pass on.

We love our friends.

Then feel abandoned when they leave.

We love our skinny jeans.

Then curse the world when they rip.

We love,

but then we hurt.

Pain is love's sidekick. 

Like tan lines and summertime.

No matter how hard you try to avoid it, you can never fully escape.

So, is it worth it?

I'm a control freak and so the idea of letting my happiness be contingent on another person seems totally out of character. But at the same time, I know humans have a need for connection. If we were meant to be alone, we would be so. If humans were designed to live in seclusion, there would be only one person on the earth, there would be no communication, there would be no love. Love exists because of the human desire for interpersonal connection. So...love is natural. And, therefore, pain is also natural. 

It sucks but that's how it's supposed to be. And who am I to mess with natural order?

I still don't know if it's worth it. 

But now I'm really thinking...

God is Love (1 Jn. 4:8).

God so loved the world...(Jn 3:16)

...Love covers all wrongs (Pvb. 10:12)

Above all, love each other deeply...(1 Pet. 4:8)

As a Catholic, I believe that God is good. Apparently, if God is good and God is Love then by the commutative property, Love must also be good. I suppose this still doesn't answer the question of love being worth the pain or not, but I'd say that if God is omnibenevolent and totally perfect then if He chose to love, it's probably in our best interest to as well. Through love, we can grow more like God. This is, most certainly, a good thing.