Who Wrote the Book of Love?
Wikipedia, who else?
If you haven’t turned to the pages of the largest reference database on the Internet, on the Web since 2001, let me cite Wikipedia’s definition of itself: “Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project.” The important thing to remember is that “Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world.”
Almost anybody with access to the Internet can edit an entry in this massive encyclopedia, and even add something. You would think that free access would invite gremlins, and it does. That’s the quirky thing about Wikipedia. Readers can be misled if they get to a site that has not been back-read yet by one of the thousands of volunteers who check entries. Take “love,” for example.
Appointing myself a world-renowned expert on “love,” I decided to visit that entry in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Here’s how Wikipedia opened its entry Sunday: “Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. Depending on context, love can have a wide variety of intended meanings. It is commonly conceived of romantically, as a deep, ineffable feeling of intense and tender attraction shared in passionate or intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships. Love can also be conceived of as Platonic love, religious love, familial love, and, more casually, anything considered strongly pleasurable, desirable, or preferred, including activities and foods.”
I fiddled with that paragraph and changed a few things, including the third sentence: “Romantic love is seen as a deep, ineffable feeling of intense and tender attraction shared in passionate or intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships.” I also repaired the wording of the last sentence.
After previewing my handiwork, I checked a box indicating “minor edit” and published my work. Then I delved back into the entry to see if I could find anything a little more profound to say. Under the subheading “Religious views,” there was an appeal for more challenging revisions: “The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.”
Talk about a daunting task. Do I have a worldwide view of the subject? I thought I did until I got my first ever case of writer’s block trying to add something here, anything, for more balance. The best I could do was mention how “The Bhagavad-Gita,” a sacred Hindu text, talks about how love evolves from selflessness. I wanted to take the time to add a reference to other sacred texts but just couldn’t. Surely there is somebody more qualified than I who can do that. You, maybe? Your grandmother?
My work wasn’t finished. Would you believe it? A gremlin was playing with the entry while I was writing (and thinking profoundly). By the time I posted my last addition, “love” had turned into “lovers.” What could I do? I moved the entry back to where it belonged. It may or may not be there today. Sometimes you may have to search for love.
Felicia Mitchell. First published in Washington County News (Abingdon, VA), 14 February 2007, p. A4. WCN is a publication of Media General Operations. Copyright 2007.
If you haven’t turned to the pages of the largest reference database on the Internet, on the Web since 2001, let me cite Wikipedia’s definition of itself: “Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project.” The important thing to remember is that “Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world.”
Almost anybody with access to the Internet can edit an entry in this massive encyclopedia, and even add something. You would think that free access would invite gremlins, and it does. That’s the quirky thing about Wikipedia. Readers can be misled if they get to a site that has not been back-read yet by one of the thousands of volunteers who check entries. Take “love,” for example.
Appointing myself a world-renowned expert on “love,” I decided to visit that entry in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Here’s how Wikipedia opened its entry Sunday: “Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. Depending on context, love can have a wide variety of intended meanings. It is commonly conceived of romantically, as a deep, ineffable feeling of intense and tender attraction shared in passionate or intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships. Love can also be conceived of as Platonic love, religious love, familial love, and, more casually, anything considered strongly pleasurable, desirable, or preferred, including activities and foods.”
I fiddled with that paragraph and changed a few things, including the third sentence: “Romantic love is seen as a deep, ineffable feeling of intense and tender attraction shared in passionate or intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships.” I also repaired the wording of the last sentence.
After previewing my handiwork, I checked a box indicating “minor edit” and published my work. Then I delved back into the entry to see if I could find anything a little more profound to say. Under the subheading “Religious views,” there was an appeal for more challenging revisions: “The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.”
Talk about a daunting task. Do I have a worldwide view of the subject? I thought I did until I got my first ever case of writer’s block trying to add something here, anything, for more balance. The best I could do was mention how “The Bhagavad-Gita,” a sacred Hindu text, talks about how love evolves from selflessness. I wanted to take the time to add a reference to other sacred texts but just couldn’t. Surely there is somebody more qualified than I who can do that. You, maybe? Your grandmother?
My work wasn’t finished. Would you believe it? A gremlin was playing with the entry while I was writing (and thinking profoundly). By the time I posted my last addition, “love” had turned into “lovers.” What could I do? I moved the entry back to where it belonged. It may or may not be there today. Sometimes you may have to search for love.
Felicia Mitchell. First published in Washington County News (Abingdon, VA), 14 February 2007, p. A4. WCN is a publication of Media General Operations. Copyright 2007.
posted by Felicia Mitchell | 6:37 AM
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