Do People Nowadays Even Know What Love Is?

Love, like many things in life, is relative.

Now Here's Real Responsibility 

You may love your mother or father, brother or sister, your dog or cat, but they all have their own type of affection and meaning in your life. Hopefully, you also love your marriage mate.

Love for a mate usually begins as an attraction, usually hormonal in nature. For thousands of years, until after WWI most people who married, were matched by their parents, many depending on local culture, were promised or wed at a very young age. Others were introduced by mutual acquaintances, or their families had known each other for decades. Most young ladies were never alone with their prospective mate until after they were married. This was actually a protection not only pregnancy, but also helped to control sexually transmitted diseases as well. Many young women may not have even known their promised mate well enough to really know them, much less actually have love for that person.

Too many people today think of a marriage mate, or a "life partner" as being disposable. If things get too difficult, they just dump that person and move on to another. It's a bit like when a new model car or computer comes out, you dump the old one a get the newest model with all the bells and whistles, which will soon also be outdated. Marriage should be a serious and permanent commitment that both persons will work at. No two people get along without some difficulties. It's not supposed to be a 50/50 deal, but each person should be willing to invest 100% to make things work well. Never take your partner for granted, and forget that they too have feelings and emotions that need your attention and empathy. To many people seem to give more attention and caring to their friends, or even complete strangers than they do the person they promised to love and cherish "until death they do part."

Just the Beginning

Many started off their married lives as almost strangers, and were expected to make it work, and it usually did. After the World Wars, all bets were off when it came to introductions, and dating, since so many millions of young people were scattered around the globe and there was no one really to help rein in their hormonal urges. That being said, their so-called emotions were driven by a desire for intimacy, not love in most cases.

As we can see today, sex is pretty much considered a contact sport or a recreational activity, and is not performed out of love, but one's own "needs" or lust.

The result has been that the about half of all marriages end in divorce, as well as with unwanted children who are terribly confused, neglected, and abused mentally, physically, and sexually. They are raise by one parent who cannot provide the personal attention that children once got. They may end up with several different "step parents," who may not like them or may actually be abusive, either physically, mentally or sexually, leaving them emotionally damaged, or in extreme cases they may actually be killed, or commit suicide as a result.

Helping Dad Cook

When most mothers were able to stay home to care for the home and family, most children were greeted with a nice snack and a kiss when they returned from school, and a hot sit down dinner when their father returned home from working to provide for his family. Mothers seldom are now able to stay home to help rear their children, many times due to financial issues, or to help their children with homework. Many if not most children don't even know how to really cook, since mom it either too busy or too tired to prepare real family meals, or to teach them cooking basics.

Many people spend most of their grocery budget either on fast food, or take out and frozen dinners, usually because they just don't really know how to cook a real family meal.

Why, just this week there was a news story which stated that there are now places such as KFC, who are allowed to accept what used to be called Food Stamps.

Make it at Home Cheaper

If these same people knew how to cook and manage their Food Stamp funds, they could eat better than they are, or may have even eaten in years. It is usually much cheaper to buy things like whole potatoes and fresh or frozen vegetables and tomato sauce, and fresh low fat meat than it is to improvise with ready to prepare dinners, which are not only more expensive, but contain very high levels of salt and preservatives and/or sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc. These diets are overloaded with ingredients which cause diabetes, high cholesterol, and kidney failure and heart attack. Many families eat in front of the television or the computer screen.

Love is a very precious thing, that should never be taken for granted, but cherished, and shared in abundance with everyone in your family. Too many people have forgotten how to actually love anyone but themselves and material possessions which are here today and gone tomorrow.