Eye of the Tiger/Definition of love.

This is my desktop picture.

Its a downloadable ever-changing wallpaper for my desktop. And considering I’m born in the chinese zodiac year of the Tiger, it makes a lot of sense.

I like the stare the tiger gives me every time I switch on my computer. The hard glance or a predatory laser-focused stare-down that dares me to look right back into its eyes.

I’ve got a 23 inch screen. Which means that this is probably as close as I’ll ever get to staring down a tiger before I get eaten.

I keep thinking about the way this picture makes me feel. So what does it feel like to stare straight into its eyes?

It makes me feel powerful. It gives me the kind of courage I know that I don’t have, the staredown challenges every single one of my beliefs, but yet even through its gaze, I can tell its just looking. There’s no menace, just a sideways glance as though he’s analysing me but I’m no threat. I’m just another irritation.

Hm.

***

Its funny. You know how at one point in time, I kept puzzling over the definition of what love truly is? I’m still stuck at that exact same point. Nothing’s really changed. I still wonder what would we call love, how would you put it into words, how you would phrase it so that when someone says that s/he loves you, it means [insert phrase here.]

I puzzle over that over and over again. Funny, isn’t it?

But I can easily enough look out at the world, point to something and say “that’s love.”

A mother cradling her newborn baby and planting a kiss on its forehead. That’s love.

A husband holding hands with his sick, comatosed wife, begging the doctor to do one more thing just to keep her alive. That’s love.

An innocent little girl with big brown eyes snuggling up to her mother on the couch. That’s love.

A couple out in town, stopping to look at a dress that has caught the lady’s eye in a shop window. Her hand rests comfortably in his jeans back pocket. I catch the twinkle of an engagement ring. His arm fits like a glove around her shoulder. She murmurs something in his ear. He laughs and kisses her. That’s love.

Something that’s so blatantly obvious around me but yet, I can never seem to place it. To find that definition.

Or should I really ask the question, “What on earth am I actually looking for?”