Dumbledore's Love ( a rather lengthy post, warning for those faint of heart)

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 147772

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "johnbowman19" <jhnbwmn at ...> 
wrote:
>
 I would say that not everyone knows what love is. Most confuse mere 
infatuation for the true love that lasts the test of time as 
described in my quote. 
> I would argue that love is something that is objective or 
universal to all, and can be understood by all if all use reason and 
self determination. 
(snip) 
> So then my question remains the same, does Dumbledore understand 
the nature of love? As I said in my previous post, he may understand 
> love as a king loves his subjects, but is a true definition of 
love?  I am sorry BAW, but I do not think the Bible will assist in 
this question.  
> 

Tonks:
lol, I love you dry sense of humor.  The Roman Catholic church 
a "sect".  And the "because this is not Ancient Greece" comment, 
just cracked me up. 

Back to the subject:

First DD is wiser than many others and more powerful, etc. this is 
true.  And to this extent he may not have an equal.  But if you see 
him as a human being (I am not sure that I do), but for those who 
do, let us explore it this way.  He is an equal with everyone by 
virtue of his humanness.  

Mozart may not have had an equal in his ability at music, but he 
could still relate to other humans because he too shared the human 
condition. DD may be the greatest wizard of all times and has no 
equal.  But he understands the human condition because he shares it 
with other humans.  So in this way he is equal with all. 

As I said before, I do not think that he has to have a romantic love 
relationship to understand true or real love.  I think that DD 
understands it better than most.  (Forgive me, I know that I am not 
expressing this well.)

Since BAW brought the bible into this...  The place in the bible to 
look for an example of the highest form of Love is to look at the 
life and person of Jesus. I think that DD shows that type of life 
and personhood too.  If you look at DD in this way it may help to 
understand his motives and the deep degree to which he (IMO) does 
understand Love, and Love in its very highest form.

Tonks_op