Love is an interesting thing. All of us in some part of our lives have experienced being loved or have had a love for someone or something. But the remarkable thing about love is the power that it holds. Love can be so strong, strong enough to the point where it becomes the very thing that steers the course of our lives. I added this picture of waves in resemblance to what out decisions, our values, and ultimately our lives look like when love is present. It’s not a raging storm, but the waves are being pushed and pulled in every sort of direction, just like how our values fluctuate in the presence of love. Today, I want to take a look at how love does this through psychological, sociological, and literary perspectives.

As I said, love can be a controlling factor in our lives. Some people argue that it is good that love controls us, for if we were not controlled by love then what else would our lives be so influenced by?! However, from a neuropsychological standpoint, the overwhelming power of love may not be such a good thing, especially when you being to think about how it may effect the original values we hold as an individual. For example, Henk van Steenbergen, a neuropsychological professor, wrote an article about the effects of passionate love on the brain. His research concludes that the early stages of passionate love actually reduce cognitive control and impair the executive functionality we have, meaning that we have less conscious control of our actions. With that said, passionate love has the undeniable side effect of making a person susceptible to fleeting desires that may go against the initial standards one holds for himself.

We see this same principle act in society as well. In fact, society becomes a perfect representative sample of how love really influences and alters the values people hold. Miami Lanas and Michalinos Zembylas, write a paper titled “Towards a Transformational Political Concept of Love in Critical Education. They argue that love is a powerful force or “transforming power” in our everyday lives. It acts as a compass for individual and collective action. I t also mentions that “All of the great movements for social justice in our society have strongly empathized a love ethic.” So what does this all mean? Well, when you think about love as something that laters our decisions, you can clearly see that love changes our values. Social movements happen because our love for something fueled us to make a difference. The power of love is so evident in society.

In Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest", Jack Worthing and Gwendolyn both display this idea of how love alters the values we hold at some point in the play. You see, Jack Worthing fell in love with Gwendolyn; however, because he was so in love with Gwendolyn; however, because he was so in love with her, he lied to her that his name was Earnest, because she told him that she loves the name Earnest and that she would basically marry him because his name was Earnest. I hope you can see already, that love altered the standards that they hold themselves. One being that Jack Worthing lied about his identity just to win a women over; and the other being that Gwendolyn fell in love with guy simply because his name was Earnest. If love wasn't in the picture, Jack Worthing would never have lied about his identity, nor would Gwendolyn become so infatuated with just a name. Love clearly influenced the values that these two people had, which is seen all throughout the play with other characters.

Love is the driving force of humanity. It controls and influences people, whether for the good or for the bad. In conclusion, I think the evidence is clear that love alters the values that a person holds. The real dilemma is just evaluating whether or not it's influence is for the better or the worse. In cases of "The Importance of Being Earnest", that seems to have been for the worse, but in society and pushing for social change, it could be for the better. The bottom line is that we must be aware of the controlling aspects of love so that we may ultimately use it for the good and not be like the waves of the ocean and be tossed around by the desires of love.