Love ActuallyIt must be love … All you need is love …

What’s love go tot do with it … Let’s spend the night together … Love hurts …

Context: Love

ActuallyO The Context title alerts us that we

need to consider both parts of this – “love” and “actually” … together …* What meanings can we take from this?

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Popular cultureWe found love – Rihanna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzgWithout You – Harry Nilsson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzg

The Power of Love – Huey Lewis (and the News) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzgThe Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzg

When Harry Met Sally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNsu6CeTKpcFour Weddings and a Funeral https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU9Z4i245Q4Pride and Prejudice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU9Z4i245Q410 Things I hate About You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7N6kB11GpE High Fidelity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnkrIObJqpk

Wot kidsa luv r thr?

We say …Romantic love Infatuation Puppy loveSelf-love (good and bad kinds) Compassionate/HumanePlatonic love Brotherly loveFamilial love Maternal/Paternal LoveFilial loveSexual/sensual love Soulmate love “True”Love of God/Religious love Love of country Conditional/Unconditional loveTough love

Ancient Greeks said 4 kinds:Agape – UnconditionalPhileo – Warm, tender Platonic loveEros – passionate and intenseStorge - familial

from the Bard himself…

O SONNET 116Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.   If this be error and upon me proved,   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

And a reply from someone closer to home (and apparently somewhat less romantically inclined!)

O Sonnet IIHe said that love’s an ever-fixéd mark,Makes firmament of that which wheels and whirls,Describes as ‘light’ what’s mostly masked in dark,That which bewilders this bewildered world.He mourned a love that ever was suppressed,By virtue that commanded every breath;A grave silence quashing love’s poor protest,A love unconsummated, save by death.When eyes and lips freely take their moment-chance;They seek and speak a prayer’s forbidden faith;They meet in heat, a lusty love-semblance;Heed no curbing hand nor license of ‘grace’.When barest truth of love seems doomed to failIts grace attained because it is so frail.

Love?What are the characteristics of love?

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Can we break down ‘love’? What are its ‘parts’?

O “Intimacy, passion and commitment.” (Psych)

O TrustO RespectO AttractionO SexualityO InterestO Faith

Is this love?O Note found on

fridge door.I want your room cleaned up, get your homework done and your hair washed before you even think about playing video games.loveMum

* What is “mother” love? * Is it different from “father” love?* Is family love instinctive? Earned? “Natural”?

Patriotism & loveO “… is the last refuge of the

scoundrel.” (Oscar Wilde)O “If I had a choice between betraying

my country and betraying my friend, I hope I’d have the guts to betray my country.” (E. M. Forster)

O "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” (Mark Twain)

Is love a “good” thing?O Then why does it ‘make’ us feel so

bad?O “There is nothing either good or bad,

but thinking makes it so …” (W. Shakespeare, Hamlet)

O Is love beyond ‘definition’?O What is “bad love”?

“Greater love hath no man ...”

What do we understand by this quote? (Is it religious?) (How does it complete?)(How do we ‘know’ this?)

Do you think it is ‘true’? Or ‘valid’? (Which?)

What do you think of this definition of love?

O Corinthians 13:4-8New International Version (NIV)4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. Some questions:• What role has religion in a discussion about love?• Is this view of love helpful?

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only son

…” What does it mean, to “love the world”? Is (self-)sacrifice the greatest demonstration of

love? Is love bigger than any human relationship? Is love of God the greatest love? Religions all preach love – why, then, do you

think religious belief provokes so much conflict? What is the same/different about spiritual love

and human love?

How can you kill love?

What happens to love when it goes?• Does it disappear?• Change – to hate or indifference?• Can everyone love?• Is our love a culturally “Western” concept?

Love-questionsO What’s the relationship between love

and power?O What do we mean, when we say, “The

language of love”?O What are love’s “counterfeits”?O Can loving be letting go?O What is Valentine’s Day about?O What is a “love-hate” relationship?O Is loving part of what it is to be human?