I have a friend (who is here on G+. She may or may not pipe up) who had some sage advice at one point.
Everyone tells you that you have to love yourself before you can love others. What a crock. Really – think about it. Is a mother with a big heap of emotional damage and self loathing incapable of loving her children? Why, no. We all reject that scenario in general.
Reality is this. People love you. Doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what condition your life is in – SOMEBODY loves you.
The statement ought be – "You have to love yourself before you can perceive the love of others."
Really, Charles? Really? Even if this post for some reason seemed like the appropriate venue for this, and even if I accepted your premise that love is illusory, I think your grasp of history is a bit loose at best.
Feel however you feel, but it's tiring to see people who are so hardened and embittered about love that they have to try to spoil it for other people.
He +1'ed my tale of the car ride. so I think there's hope for him. *winks*
Jonathon – There may be hope for him. I'll be keeping an eye on him though. >8|
Summer – Well played, madam. Well played.
<sar>Well that's just fine for you, isn't it?</sar>
Luckily Google doesn't use HTML, they have their own weird system for font changes, so the sarcasm tag works well here.
But I also know that someone else's love for you can help you learn to love yourself again. That's what happened to me last January when I started seeing my boyfriend. He entered my life at literally my lowest point and he stayed through all my ups and downs (mostly downs, really bad downs). I really was hurting and thought I had caused it all and was loathing myself and through his love I learned to see myself how he did. That enabled me to start loving myself and when my self-destruction starts up each time I can remind myself to look through his eyes and "see" myself again.