love styles
that's the way love goes

Eros is a passionate, physical love, where the partner's physical appearance is highly important. The Eros lover gets involved very quickly. Eros is like being hit by a bolt of lightning.

Ludus is love played as a game, never taken too seriously. Very playful in their approach to love, ludic lovers don't mean to cause harm but they often do, with multiple partners at once. Ludus like all aspects of a rainstorm, but doesn't want to get wet.

Storge is a slow-growing love, evolving out of affection and friendship. Similarity between partners is extremely important. Storgic lovers would be likely to stay inside during the thunderstorm and go out when a gentle rain begins to fall.

Pragma is pragmatic love -- commonsensical, realistic, feet on the ground. Pracmic lovers know what they're looking for in a relationship and have "conditions" that must be met. In a rainstorm, pragma will always have an umbrella.

Mania is the highly emotional, roller-coaster ride of love. Manic lovers obsess about their partners, cascillate between elation and despair, and generally fit our culture's stereotype of "romantic love." Manic lovers stand outside getting wet, self-destructively waiting for the lightning.

Agape is a totally selfless, giving and altruistic love, and quite rare. Agapic lovers think not of themselves but of their partners and what they can do for them. Their love style is more spiritual than physical. The agapic lover would give you his or her umbrella so that you won't get wet.

Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick. Summarized from "Social Psychology," second edition, page 379. 1997. Elliot Aronson, Timothy Wilson, Robin Akert.

and the world cried out for a Savior
someone real they could depend on. ...

1 Corinthians
Chapter 13

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,

it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,

it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

For we know partially and we prophesy partially,

but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

From: New American Bible
Painting: Bursting Heart

JANUARY | february | MARCH