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Lesson 5

Love

I remember this debate on art versus

pornography. When the trial judge was asked to
justify his decision on the lewdness of the picture,

he thought it was indeed pornographic and not at
all artistic. The opposition claimed in frustration, “I

may not be able to define what pornography is but

I know one when I see one!” Love is like this: we
know love but we couldn’t put it into words. Words

are so inadequate to express a grand concept such as love. Unless we can
capture the beauty of sunset in a bottle, we can’t ever hope to define the great-

est feeling, love. We do have physical or emotional indicators that we are feel-
ing love: increased heart beat rate, adrenaline content in the blood, hormonal

secretions, a feeling of well-being and so forth.

However, love is more than the sum of its parts. I salivate when I see hotdogs
and I say, “I love hot dogs.” but could we say then, “Love is when I salivate at
the sight of something nice?” When a mother spanks her kid justifying such

seeming cruelty as an act of love, should we define love as to mean something

painful but well-meaning? You see, we know love’s manifestations, but we can’t
grab love itself in one neat definition.

Comprehension

1. What kind of indicators do we have when feeling love?
2. What does the writer do when seeing hotdogs?

Questions

1. How do you define love?

2. Do you think people have to be married if they are in love?
3. How do you manifest and prove your love?
4. Do you think love is eternal or just temporary? Why do you think so?

Vocabulary & Expressions

lewd : using rude words or movements that make you think of sex (n. lewdness)
inadequate : not good enough, big enough, skilled enough, etc. for a particular purpose
indicator : something that can be regarded as a sign to show the change
salivate : to produce more saliva in your mouth than usual, especially because you see or
smell food
spank : to hit a child on their bottom with your open hand
manifestation : a very clear sign that a particular situation or feeling exists

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