I got into a discussion today with two of my friends, Stephen and Ryan. Ryan was saying that the only point to life was death. These are one of the things I believe in, and quite frankly I look forward to the natural end of my life, but this is for another post. I was about to agree when Stephen, after a while of thinking, said "What about love?"

I raised an eyebrow, not what I was expecting, but Stephen did have a point. Ryan responded with the fact that love was something non existent and created by the media. I don't think he honestly means this, he's too light hearted of a guy to think this way. But I responded with basically what I'm writing in this journal entry.

I'm a bitter cynic, but at times I like to believe that there is love. You have to, if you don't have hope then what's the point? But love is real, and I found it in a simple place. My dog.

In my opinion the best example of true love is the love you have with a pet (disregarding the people who abuse their animals of course). Dog, cat, bird, hamster, etc, you do love them, and if you don't, then you're missing out on something.

Now I say that this is true love because I love my dog even though the only thing she gives me is her companionship. After all, that's all she can give, but she gives it to me anyways. She never asks for much, just food, water, and attention in exchange she gives me the greatest gift of all. Unconditional love.

A pet can't even speak the same language as you, and they don't understand what makes you upset, but if you have a bad day they're always the first to come by and cheer you up. You can't understand what makes your pet sad, but if they're acting upset you give them some extra attention and they perk right up. There's this language barrier between us, but in the end we reach across that and out to each other.

As humans we normally expect too much from each other, if someone doesn't fulfill our expectations we often get angry or frustrated with that person. We are constantly wanting more and more from our partners when in the end isn't it their companionship what matters?

We also tend to love people for the wrong reasons. Money, looks, status, convince, the list goes on and on. But, at least for me, I don't love my dog for any other reason then herself.

So when I find someone that I love the same way I love my dog, I know that's true love, and something special.