What Do You Love More?

[Sunstone]

Do you feel you love people as they are more than you love an ideal of what people should be, or do you feel you love an ideal of what people should be more than you love people as they are?

 

[BucephalusBB]

I am very satisfied with my friends. They show me exactly as they are and I really know them, I believe. And I love my friends.
People as they should be? I don't know, you can make everything more beautifull but most of the times something other beautifull automatically becomes less beautifull in the process..

I vote for people as they are.

 

[Willamena]

I love people as they could be, the entire range of potentiality for humankind.

Each individual is but a fragment of the whole that contains the whole.

 

[Fluffy]

I think I love the ideal more since I care more about humanity as a whole than I do about individual humans.

 

[Nanda]

People as they are. Nothing is more poignant and heartbreaking to me than all of our flaws and tiny personal tragedies, our good intentions and failures, our acts of kindness and our shortcomings.

 

[Buttercup]

Like Nanda, I picked loving people as they are. I'm not sure loving people as they could be even qualifies as love.

If you love someone for what they could be, what happens if they never become your projected ideal?

At least if you love people and all the quirkiness that belongs to them you give them something valuable, being loved as is. And, you can help them become the potential you see. Otherwise it's all feeling based in fantasy.

 

[ChristineES]

I love people as they are. Loving people as they can be is a delusion and can only lead to disappointment. Besides that, I am a follower of the Golden Rule: Do do others as you like them to do to you. I love others for what they are since I want to be loved for who I am, only it is not a conscience effort--I just do it.

 

[kreeden]

Isn't that kinda like asking if you love the child more then the adult ? Sure , children are cute ....

 

[!Fluffy!]

Do you feel you love people as they are more than you love an ideal of what people should be, or do you feel you love an ideal of what people should be more than you love people as they are?

real people with all their faults are warm, fluffy, entertaining and fun to cuddle with.

ideals however make for very cold bedfellows, so to speak.

 

[Halcyon]

If I love someone it is because of their individual character traits, it may not even need to be a person for me to love an individual - i loved my dog for example - it's the traits that make them up.
I don't think i could imagine a perfect individual, individuals are already perfect in their distinctiveness, if they conformed to some preconceived ideal that i entertained then they would not be an individual but a concept, i don't think you can really love a concept.

 

[eudaimonia]

Do you feel you love people as they are more than you love an ideal of what people should be, or do you feel you love an ideal of what people should be more than you love people as they are?

Those two types of love are incommensurable. I love people in both ways, and there is simply no way for me to compare the two against each other, since they don't have the same purpose. They just don't "compete" with each other.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Cynic]

Do you feel you love people as they are more than you love an ideal of what people should be, or do you feel you love an ideal of what people should be more than you love people as they are?

This question reminds me of Huministic psychology. IMO, loving people as they are is a definining characteristic of love, while loving the ideal of what people should be, is characteristic of self-gratification (one of the reasons why marriage is so fragile these days.)
But it realy depends on the context. For example, are you supposed to love Ted Bundy for who he was? Obviously not.
I think there should be a healthy balance between the two.

 

[methylatedghosts]

I don't think people should be anything other than people.

So, I love people as they are.

 

[Quagmire]

As much as anything I love people for what they could be but choose not to be.

 

[Bathsheba]

As much as anything I love people for what they could be but choose not to be.

:ctr: Cleverly Teased Response HOMERUN!

:hugkiss: I want you to have my babies (metaphorically speaking)


How do I turn off the *gushing* feature on my keyboard?



"Why be prejudiced against anyone because of their race or nationality or creed... when there're so many real reasons to hate others?" Emo Phillips

 

[Quagmire]

:ctr: Cleverly Teased Response HOMERUN!

:hugkiss: I want you to have my babies (metaphorically speaking)


How do I turn off the *gushing* feature on my keyboard?



"Why be prejudiced against anyone because of their race or nationality or creed... when there're so many real reasons to hate others?" Emo Phillips

...but as always, what I love most of all are fans (especially the fiesty ones).