There were a few points in this chapter that caught my attention but I really liked how Lewis explained and compared "Venus" versus "Eros". These refer to two different types of love or desire. Venus is the love that involves simply sexual desire. This would be the case when a man sees a woman and simply wants her to satisfy his sexual urges caused by the hormones of the body. Eros however is the true love of a person. Eros is the love that needs to take place between a man and woman to determine if they should be married. If it is all Venus that keeps a relationship together, it will never work in the end. That kind of love will never keep people happy together. They can not relate to each other in any way. Venus however is needed in certain situations. Lewis says that at first Eros should be experienced for long lasting relationships, but after marriage Venus should also be present. Eros is much stronger and will be everlasting but Venus will just come and go.
Another point that Lewis makes and I agree with is the difference between falling in love and then actually being in love. It is very easy to fall in love with an individual but to stay in love with them after the "falling" wears of is something that it totally different. At first everything seems so wonderful and you seem to get along so well. However that affect wears off with time and to be in love requires there to be a lot of work involved. I liked the comparison Lewis made to being in love and growing a garden. A garden requires attention daily, otherwise the plants will wilt or weeds will start to take over. To be in love requires that the proper amount of time is put into the relationship. There should never be a sense that everything will always be the same because that simply is not true. Circumstances will change and people's ideas will change. There always has to be the sense that the relationship is never perfect but always a work that is progressing.
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I liked when you talked about the comparison that Lewis made when he related being in love to a garden. I also talked about this analogy because I think it fits very nicely and shows just how hard being in love actually is. I think too many people go into a relationship thinking that it will be easy when, in fact, it is much harder than they think, and if they can't devote a lot of time to it then the relationship will just die.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that a married couple needs more than just the "Venus" love to make their relationship last. I would go so far as to argue that Venus by itself shouldn't even be labeled as a kind of love.
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