Love, an Inspiration ... or Not?

I recently ran across a quote from Francine Prose saying that Love is a poor inspiration for art because it is an element of life that is too fragile, too short-lived to be worthy of the labor of great artists. Having given this some serious thought after I got past my right-off-the bat astonished disagreement, I've decided I still believe that there must have been more to the context than I saw. After all, it's not as if this pronouncement came from just anybody — but I think she's wrong.

Classicists will doubtless refer us to the great epic poetry of the ages; Christians will speak of all that has been wrought in every medium for the glory of God; Muslims may do the same, and Buddhists and Hindus, et al. I'll be forced to seek examples to prove that the source of nearly all that is most beautiful and memorable on the planet that is man-made is a human emotion in the form of that overloaded word — Love.

I've read that Eskimos have over twenty words for snow; I know the Greeks used four words for the distinctions they made in the varieties of love. Maybe to argue with Ms. Prose, we need to include all of these. On the other hand, maybe I'll just sound pedantic, when what I want to project is passion.

To start with, the most generalized term for those ancient philosophers and linguists was philos. It shows up in plenty of English words that indicate a fondness — for ideas or things, but not for persons.

Then there's agape that includes respect and reverence, as for a god or a father.
Third is charitas, the word that was translated for so long in First Corinthians as "charity," its obvious direct descendant. Nowadays, in most versions we read "love" instead. Hmm, is there still room for interpretation?

Finally we have the meaning that leaps first to modern minds for the Greek eros. It may be interesting to note how our current reaction to "Love" is either to its insignificance as in, "I love spaghetti," or to the assumption that sexual attraction is what is meant. It would be a fool who suggests that physical love is insignificant, but I think Ms. Prose may be forgetting those other elements of what make us human connoted by the extra words the Greeks felt were necessary.

Loss, and how people perceive it, whether of self or those intangibles that consume what we're used to calling our hearts, would be scarcely more than discomfort or inconvenience without Love. Tennyson's words saying it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all are cliché, like a great many truths. Most people will agree.

Perhaps you've entered into more than one discussion of what sort of loss is most painful: a parent, a child, a spouse; sight, hearing, a limb; a fortune, a good name, mementos or pets. What keeps these conversational disagreements from being purely academic is the love implied in them. Without having loved them, we wouldn't have felt their loss deeply.

Of the greatest human achievements, you'd be challenged to find any whose inspiration — even empowerment, doesn't spring from Love.

Love, an Inspiration ... or Not?

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