life - that property of plants and animals which makes it possible for them to take in food, get energy from it, grow, adapt themselves to their surroundings, and reproduce their kind : it is the quality that distinguishes a living animal or plant from inorganic matter or a dead organism.
-webster's dictionary

where in that definition does it say anything about free will? or thinking? or love? or anything that we feel is so key to life.

everyone makes life out to have a secret, some key to it. like there's some specific way to live, but that definition makes it all seem pretty blunt. it doesn't seem like there's much of a secret. it seems like all that seperates us from rocks is our ability to eat, grow, adapt, and reproduce.

this can be taken one of two ways.

the first is that we are doing something wrong. there is no secret to life. there's no way to live it. the word 'love' is mentioned nowhere in that sentence. this can also be taken one of two ways. we shouldn't love, or there is no right way to love. it's so imperfect it shouldn't even be tangled in with life's definition.

the second way this can be taken is that rocks don't eat, grow, adapt, or reproduce, but that's all that seperates us. we are similar to inorganic matter, because there are only four things that we can do that it can't. perhaps it can love, just as we can.

somehow, everyone got the idea that in to live the right way, you have to fall in love. some people assume that is the only way.

good old webster must've missed the memo. him and i would've hit it off right away.