Love at First Eros

Lewis’s in cite into Eros could be one of his greatest literary achievements of all time. The concept of Love has be played with, attacked, sung about, and lamented from the days of Lamech to the prose of Shakespeare. I found it quite fascinating the power and personality Lewis gives to Eros. Lewis takes the love which so many chalk up to be sexual gratification and the ever so familiar attraction between genders and makes it into an identity, a garden, a cosmic life force subject not only to human morality, but also human mortality. Lewis opens the door of understanding the true power behind Eros. The love is not by any means limited to sexual attraction, but foundationally and powerfully some much more. Lewis states that in fact Eros works outside of human biological luster and attraction and focuses solely on the person being the person. Lewis gives this profound and humorous analogy to show what Eros is not. A man walking down the street to look for sex is in fact not focused on finding Eros between another person and himself but merely attempting to satisfy a purely sensational aspect of himself, actuality the woman which he seeks is no more important than a cigarette carton. The carton is so excitedly purchased for the sensation within, and then is merely discarded as trash. So it is, if the love of Eros is viewed under such a particular looking glass. Truest Eros in Lewis’s eyes is like a garden. A garden is something that must grow and be taken care of, but also yield powerful and sufficient “produce” that is the pride of its owners.
Reading and listening to such an essay causes me to step back, and analyze how I view not only current relationships, but future desires of marriage and the aspects of such powerful bonds. Falling in love and being in love present such a different point of perspective on the idea Eros. The fact, as Lewis states, that the sexual component of Eros is impeded by all other aspects of the love is so counter to what we find in modern society. The very proposition that someone could be in love and not be happy, would throw many of today’s romantics for quite a loop. We can really only pray that the Lord will work in our heart, provide us a little extra agape love for Him, and give us the strength to find and fulfill the true love of Eros in our lives.