Did you know that when you have butterflies in your stomach, it is actually a disturbance in your digestive system?
Aside from that random snippet of information, this week was great in the aspect of learning new things in class.
What is the meaning of love? How do we know what kind of love it is?
Storge: the kind of love found in the affection between parents and their children.
Philia: the kind of love that exists between friends.
Eros: love between a man and woman--romantic love.
Agape: love that is independent of one's feelings for another. (To me, this kind of struck me as a "love thy neighbor" type love.
We were asked in class to break down each love into what percentage we thought it would be in our lives. It was hard for me to do this because I don't have a spouse, so I'm not sure what kind of level my eros would be at, but the rest of them seemed pretty simple if I were to eliminate that one. I believe Philia is about 50%, Storge was hard as well, but I compared it to my nieces and nephews as 25% and the other, Agape, would be about 25% as well.
We talked about cohabitation in class on Friday. This is one of my favorite discussions because I like picking apart the ideas about why people want to cohabit. I feel that people in our society today are scared of the marital commitment because they have seen so many failed marriages over the years. I myself have this same fear. But in the article we read for class this week (Hanging Out, Hooking Up, and Celestial Marriage), it clearly says, "Satan is giving special attention to you, my young friends--both single and married --to create doubt in your minds about marriage and your being ready to marry, increase your fear of failure to find the right one and your fear of divorce, and heighten your concern about having children." This sums it up in a very simple sentence: People are scared to get married, they're scared of the permanent commitment it entails, so what do they do instead? Well, isn't it obvious? They move in together, they imitate everything a marriage should be, but they do not make vows (or covenants in the LDS culture) because that would be much too scary. Satan is the master imitator. He gives people that feeling that what they're doing is okay, there's nothing wrong with it, and it's basically the same as being married anyway. So, why get married? In my mind, the question is this: Why NOT get married then? If you are already doing everything a married couple does, what is the purpose? Again, the underlying problem is FEAR.
However, not all couples that cohabit have a failed marriage. Of course, the divorce rate is higher if you live together beforehand. There are different types of cohabiting couples:
1. The precursor to marriage: these cohabitors have definite plans to marry and express a high degrees of satisfaction with, and commitment to, the relationship.
2. Coresidential daters: These individuals basically disliked living the single life and opted to move in with someone even though they were uncertain about how long term the relationship might be.
3. Trial Cohabitors: these individuals intend at some point to marry, but they are not sufficiently committed to their current partner to expect the cohabitation to end up in marriage.
4. Alternative to marriage: these individuals are interested in a long-term relationship with their current partner, but they are not interested in getting married.
These are the main thing that stood out to me in class this week, however I could ramble on. These are good things to keep in mind.
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