Love
ANNE MARIE PAHUUS
RE
FLEC
TI
ON
S
LOVE
© Anne Marie Pahuus and Aarhus University Press 2018
Layout and cover: Camilla Jørgensen, Trefold
Cover photograph: Poul Ib Henriksen
Publishing editor: Søren Mogensen Larsen
Translated from the Danish by Heidi Flegal
This book is typeset in Dante and Gotham
E-book production by Narayana Press, Gylling, Denmark
ISBN 978 87 7184 634 8
Part of the Reflections series from Aarhus University Press
Aarhus University Press
Finlandsgade 29
DK-8200 Aarhus N
Denmark
International distributors:
Oxbow Books Ltd.
ISD
CONTENTS
A BIG WORD
YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ROSE
MOVED TO TEARS
FALLING IN LOVE – INTO THE VOID
THE CONCEPT OF LOVE IN ANTIQUITY
CAN BEING IN LOVE BRING US CLOSER TO BEING GOOD?
MAN’S GREATEST ASPIRATION
THE TRUSTING SPACE
EROS AND AGAPE
WHAT IS LOVE?
A BIG WORD
Love is a big word, yet it flows so easily from our lips. Countless songs extol the raptures of “true love” or the pleasure and pain when someone “steals your heart away”. Humble in size, this word not only serves to describe our most crucial emotions and actions. It is also a recurring element in our everyday language and in the music that surrounds us: on our earphones going to school or work, at the bus stop, at a concert, at the gym. Everywhere we hear songs about love – especially love gone wrong.
Love runs through and anchors the emotional rainbow of our lives. The pot of gold at one end holds the ordinary glue that bonds us to our children, our partners, our families. At the other end is a hot cauldron