To state a claim as abrupt as this I think that you need some more understanding on the topic that you are working with. To make a quote about love that seems to make love evil is just wrong. Love is supposed to be joyful and happy, not about defense and hurt. This quote seemed very off key to me, but really got me to thinking that maybe love isn’t what I had always thought of it to be. Maybe love does have to include the bad in order for it to be real love, but then again who wants to fall in love if they have to deal with the bad parts more than the good? Mark Overby’s analogy on love is absurd on how it portrays love, but if you look deep enough into the analogy it does serve a purpose in distinguishing between puppy love and real love.
When someone refers to love most people think of puppy love where people cannot take their eyes off each other, but this isn’t real love. I think this idea of real love instead of puppy love is why Mark Overby’s quote has some credit to it, but yet is offensive. It is agreeable to say that love is beautiful and calm, but when the word “defense” arises in that same analogy it brings up some questions. Is true love something that you should defend yourself from? I think what Mark Overby is trying to say is that even though love is great you can’t be suckered into love so much that you let down your guard completely. I disagree with this because when you’re in love with someone you should be able to put your trust in that person which enables you to let down your guard.
For this reason I feel that Mark Overby is not completely talking about love, but more a sense of trust. This analogy would make more sense if in the beginning it started out with the phrase “Trusting someone…” not “Love”. To me this where this analogy looses is creditability. It makes love sound like a hurtful punishment where you should never put your life in someone else’s hands. If you’re not able to trust your partner you shouldn’t be in love with them to begin with. Love is not something that is beautiful on the outside and hurtful on the inside. The more I look into this quote it’s like he’s not even referring to love; he’s referring to an abusive relationship. A relationship where a woman has let her guard down and has gotten hurt and this seems to be the basis of how Mark Overby came up with this analogy. From looking at a hurtful relationship he determined that if you love someone you need to set boundaries to keep, not only yourself but your love, safe from harm.
This is very disturbing to me that a quote about love has an underlying meaning about how if you set boundaries your love will be safe. Isn’t love supposed to be daring and risky though? Everyone’s favorite quote always seems to be, “If you like someone take a risk and tell them how you feel,” but this analogy totally reputes that saying. This analogy says don’t take a risk on someone, take the safe side and pick a nice, safe guy because if you don’t you’ll always have to be on the defense. This for a fact is not love at all. Picking a nice guy that is safe is not love, it’s a friend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying go fall in love with the biggest jerk out there just because he’s not safe, but don’t pick the guy out there that you have no attraction too just because you know you can trust and count on him. That’s the point of love not knowing what to expect, but just expecting the best.
Love is something that everyone has there own opinions on, I will admit that, but I think the Mark Overby analogy takes love to extremes. When your entering a relationship you can’t just go after the safe guys you have to pick the one’s that you feel that special feeling with. Love is a beautiful and calm thing, but you can’t even experience love if you don’t put down your guard. Love is unexpected. Someone doesn’t go looking for love, love goes looking for them and when they find it go with it, take a risk. Let your guard down and enjoy love. You cannot experience real love unless you let yourself be free.