by Joan Inong

Created on: September 17, 2009

Unconditional love, a phrase rarely heard in daily life, is the true definition of love. However, people often confuse the difference between conditional and unconditional love. Perhaps it is because emotions such as love, desire, and lust are often felt as if they are all the same.

Different types of love exist. For example, a person can say that he loves chocolate cake, but he can also say that he loves his mother. What is the difference between these two loves? The former is a complication of a simple feeling while the latter is a simplification of a complex feeling. In other words, people can throw the word love around, but the feeling itself cannot be described by such a simple word as love.

On the same note, conditional and unconditional love differ, too. Conditional love is exactly what the name means to say; conditional means that there are conditions that must be met in order for the love to happen. For instance, some people may love others only if they have a certain physical feature or only if they do something specific. These are conditions that shape whether the love will occur or not. Usually, people think that conditional love is negative and that it is best avoided. However, you may find that unconditional love is difficult to find.

Unconditional love, on the other hand, is everything that is good about love. We don't want to have to meet expectations that we are not able to, or don't want to, meet. We do not want a partner who will criticize a flaw that we may have and are not able to control. We don't want to feel as if we owe something to our partners. For example, we don't want our partner to count how much money he/she has spent, and then to say, later on, Remember that I spent a lot of money on you, and this is what you owe me. These loves are not unconditional, for they depend on something else, such as physical qualities or money, and those things are never constant. Unconditional love simply means that a person will love another person no matter what.

Clearly, everyone should strive for unconditional love. They should try to love in that way, and try to attain that love, too. Many people, however, naturally follow conditional love because it is something given, and people think that a gift must be returned in some way. If you ever have a chance to love again, make sure that it is as unconditional as you can possibly make it.

Learn more about this author, Joan Inong.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.