Love: a Definition

In a world that is constantly changing, people always have the need for one thing – people. We require each other. Whether fraternal, intimate, or physical, our relationships hold us together in a network of sentiment and reliance. One particular relationship, marriage, is an institution that most Americans anticipate, hold in high respect, and consider to be a necessity. It is true that we have a need for satisfaction and security in our marriages. We are the most individualistic society in the world. However, the institution of marriage may be something we enter into simply because there is no longer any real individual self in existence, and we have never tried to address the actual definition of love as it should be.
In Habits of the Heart, Bellah et. al. discuss their theory that individualism is fulfilled through marriage. However, it seems we have pressed individualism as far as we can. It has worked for us in many ways thus far, but we are realizing its limits, espec...