eros

Today was our third session with C.S. Lewis on the Four Loves. The third love is Eros. A difficult, and dangerous subject, as Lewis began by saying.

Here are a few of his thoughts.

- Eros love does not aim at pleasure or happiness. It may come, but it is not the aim.

- Being in love will always contain a level of idolatry, which, is usually true of most things in our lives, the greater danger is making love itself the idol.

- Love makes vows without being asked.

- Passion is only incentive, it's the dive into the water.

- Being in love is something we choose, falling in love is something that happens.

- There are a lot of things in our world that we go to just for the thrill and the sensation. Is this how the man treats the woman after he has been satisfied? When one is done with a pack of cigarettes, the package is tossed.

- In a friendship each person comes for themselves, with their own interests. With Eros, it is all of the masculinity in us and all of the femininity uniting.

- Eros is when we would rather share unhappiness with the beloved, than be apart from them. We would rather be miserable with them than happy without them. If this isn't true, it is not Eros.

- To the woman: Would you live for this man? To the man: Would you die for this woman?

Love ceases to be a demon,
only when it ceases to be a god.