In the current times, romantic love is commonly viewed as a relationship between two individuals that are expected to act in some specific ways to each other. Some of those “duties” include –but are not limited to- faithfulness, understanding, support, intimacy, and respect. The perceptions of the expected behaviors in a modern romantic love relationship can, and do change between cultures. However, it can be seen that in most of the western societies, the lack of any of the above expectations can create unpleasant situations to both of the partners, destroy relationships, and even worst, subsume a couple in a complicated, destructive, codependent, and painful relationship.
In the other hand, spiritual/love relationships are those in which nothing is taken for granted. A great value and respect is given to other individuals and to existence from a very deep understanding, wise and humble spiritual level. As spiritual love embraces everything in love, it expects nothing and cannot be destroyed by anything, going beyond the material world. This difference in regards of the expectancy is one of the greatest differences between modern romantic love relationships and spiritual love/relationships, making the former a much more fragile way of being related to one another.
However, there is a convergent point for these two types of relationships: sometimes it is common to see that for a human being it is necessary to go through different unsuccessful modern romantic love relationships in order to reach the necessary wisdom, humbleness, and self-development point to be able to experience spiritual love. This situation is perfectly described by F. Dostoevsky in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, when it was only after the main character reached the lowest point of suffering and deception, that he could understand the true nature of the human being, and that is, the true nature of the spirit whose ultimate purpose is spiritual and enlightened love.
I couldn't agree with you more, and great photos.
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteLuce Irigaray writes about spiritual love between 2 equals. If the relationship is unequal then it cannot work, practically speaking. I hope you can find some of her books in Spanish.
Ali... whatta comment???
ReplyDeleteLaura, I like your work. It shows me a wisdom of someone who is experienced and have gone through many specific occasions that involve love. I can say that now, when I am 20 years old guy, I see this difference between two kinds of love. When we are kids, we have the spiritual one, I think, but when we are growing up the social pressure makes us forget about this love and imposes those options that our second part or close people should have. I had been through this too, but after your words I am sure I will over think my preferences.