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The Answer: Why Humans Fall In Love
Love is for everyone. But why is it central to human experience?
(Elaine Madison for HERZ)
My new step-son Davie (aged 10) loves to ask me 2,000 questions per day (I secretly love it, too, wink). Last night, lamenting the breakup of his parents and then his dad marrying me, he asked, “Why do people fall in love?”
Eager to give him an answer that will resonate at his current age of 10 as well as resonate when he’s much older and remembering what I told him — I spent a lot of this morning researching what my answer should be! I wrote this not intending for it to be an article for Blythe to post, but here goes.
I think we would all agree that humans fall in love for a myriad of reasons. And those reasons are deeply rooted in biological, psychological, and social factors. But to actually understand it — I think we have to first look at the human need for (1) company/family/clan/tribe (2) companionship and (3) friendship.
It’s not just man and woman needing each other — it’s people needing other people period. That’s where it actually begins in my opinion. And once we grow up, our imaginations and our desires both sexually and reproductively bring us to the place where we are ready for romantic love, the next level up from friendship.
