I want to love and treat you like a dog.
I don't mean that I want to love like a dog would — me being the
dog, but rather I want to love you as if you were a dog. This
definitely does not sound right but bear with me.
The first interpretation would be harmful and probably the worst way to express love. I exist for you, you are my world. I may be infinitely happy when you are here, but I turn into a void when you aren't, either remembering times we where together or longing for the next one — this is nothing more but a physical dependency on your love. On the one hand, it puts expectation on you to be there: every moment not with me would be an intentional (or not) way to hurt me. The guilt and the wait, will slowly consume us, respectively. On the other hand, wouldn't the times together lose their meaning if I was happy all the time? It wouldn't be a matter of the experiences lived together but rather the only fact of being there, but I'm still unsure of my position on the matter.
The second interpretation however brings an idealized vision of love
to my eyes. You are yourself and I love you unconditionally for that.
I acknowledge and respect our different worlds, as it would be foolish
to shape your already existing world to fit mine. I would not expect
anything from you, especially not love. There would be nothing to be
jealous about: we are choosing to spend time together even though you
are free and so am I.
This is in my opinion the purest form of love.
I guess I really am a dog person...
These thoughts came to me while reading the last chapter of Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, focused on Karénine situation. There is a lot to discuss with this book but this was probably the part that moved me most, both by the physical condition of the dog, but more importantly by Tereza's thoughts on her relationship with it. I'll finish this article with a quote that brought me mixed feelings of hapiness and sadness at the same time:
L'amour qui la lie à Karénine est meilleur que l'amour qui existe entre elle et Tomas. Meilleur, pas plus grand. [...] Il lui semble plutôt que le couple humain est créé de telle sorte que l'amour de l'homme et de la femme est à priori d'une nature inférieure à ce que peut être l'amour entre l'homme et le chien.