Love is sacrifice, so the question is: is this a sincere sacrifice, or just the sort of normal stuff that goes on thoughtlessly all the time?You'll notice that all of the traditional courting behaviors involve some kind of sacrifice, whether of money for flowers or candy or dates, or dignity by reciting or improvising poetry before witnesses, or spending time out with an ugly fellow that could be spent profitably washing the hair. That sort of thing is not hard to recognize as just traditional, thoughtless sacrifice. When things get a bit more serious larger sacrifices come into play, and that's where it gets a little trickier. Marriage after all is the act of sacrificing one's life to another person, hence all the mini-sacrifices leading up to it.If it doesn't lead to marriage it isn't love, because offering a half-hearted, semi-serious sacrifice is far less than the whole enchilada. If you won't offer it ALL you're not in love. And if your beloved won't offer it all in return, the everything you give will be a lot less when it's eventually given back battered but unopened.The question remains: is this a REAL sacrifice, or just a deception?
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