Love: Virtue and Emotion

Dave receives a call from Mikhail after a very long time. Mikhail apologizes for not having called. Dave writes to him later saying that he needn’t feel sorry and making ‘calling’ a chore. That way, says Dave, his relationship with Mikhail would become monotonous. He can call when he feels like.

Mikhail says nothing. After many days Dave receives a reply. Mikhail writes back.

Dave, I have been thinking of what you said about just calling when I feel like and not making my calls a chore lest our relationship turn monotonous. But Love is responsibility. When you leave a person to his ‘feeling’, he becomes no different from an animal. He Sleeps when he ‘feels’ like, reads when he ‘feels’ like, eat when he is ‘hungry’ as much as he ‘feels’ like. You get the point?

Feelings have their own place-to motivate what you strongly believe not to believe what you strongly feel. What you do is what you believe. I believe in love and hence I need feelings to motivate love. if I leave myself to feelings, I would love only when I feel conducive to the same. But feelings are like the wind, they come and go. They tear us apart often and often leave us enthusiastic. Our beliefs such as love cannot be contingent on something as momentary and unpredictable as feeling. Love is much more noble to fall prey to feelings.

It is good to love, such a maxim subsides in reason. Reason should incline our feelings to our beliefs so that we may act according to our beliefs. If reason fails to do that and our passions[bodily desires] incline our beliefs to our feelings, we would act one day, not act another, act less one day, become radical another. We would be a victim of our feelings acting a saint one day, a sinner another.


Love makes you feel accountable. Feelings make you rely on your moods and swings. Monotony is not in itself morbid. When monotonous activity is done with purpose, it is called consistency, a discipline, a relationship. It is monotonous in its nature, not in its purpose.