Study Document
We marry and make families and they become our beloveds. A husband and wife can be beloved to one another, but they are also another word that denotes another kind of relationship -- lovers.
A lover represents something more than someone who is beloved. Where a beloved person is seen as benign, a lover is mysterious and sensuous. Lovers act on the feelings that they have and it is not through long walks in the park holding hands. The dirty side of love is that sex is most definitely involved and acts as the fuel to any lustful and loving fire. To be lovers is to be physical actors in a romantic theater.
A lover, also, does not have to be the most loved person in your life. Lovers do not have to be anything more than an instrument of lust. Lovers are fleeting; they can burn bright and extinguish quickly or evolve into being a beloved person. They can be dirty little secrets, like a mistress. While love can lead to being beloved, they can be completely separate in what they convey as being beloved is applicable to children, parents, significant others, and even pets.
The beloved are those who receive love in its more emotional and less physical forms -- it is more unconditional in nature. Lovers are physical above all else and the word denotes nothing more than those who are passionately involved and most definitely conditional in their emotions. A person can be both a lover and a beloved precisely because both words are not interchangeable. Most notably, when making a public proclamation, referring to someone as your beloved is much more acceptable than yelling out, "And this is my lover!" Some words require privacy and are more intimate in nature.
While the words have a tendency to be used interchangeably by some, the depth of emotion that is conveyed through either term is different. A lover receives the instrument of love, while the beloved float above the fray.