A world full of love
I am Melinda.
The name Melinda comes from the English language and means “sweet like honey”. Indeed, honey is sweet, but it is also a way to refer to love. In fact, the Greek poet Sappho described Eros, which could be seen as a form of love, as being like honey. She wrote,
“Your eyes are honey”
or even, “In honey voice”.
Aside from my fascination with love poetry, I am also a student, teacher, traveller, aspiring researcher and reader, and above all a lover of all.
Everything is connected by love
With roots that go back to the Mediterranean city of Izmir, Turkey, I was born in the Netherlands. I have lived in various places across the globe, including Turkey, Japan, Qatar, Zanzibar and many others. Something that struck me was the phenomenon of love in all of these places. Not only was it visible in the people I met and the food I ate in small, busy streets, but foremost, I felt the love.
As the Persian poet Rumi says, “Everything in the universe is connected, and love is the bridge between you and everything.” Yes, indeed, everything is connected by love. However, what does love mean? Is it an emotion? Or a symptom? Or is it simply a desire that every individual, or actually every object, consists of?
To be fair with you, my reader, I still have not found an answer to these questions. In fact, I could say that more questions have appeared throughout this journey of exploration.
Love, read closely
I could say that throughout my life, love has been evident. However, when I started my master’s degree in literature at the University of Amsterdam, I became more conscious of the complexity it holds. I decided to take a more academic approach whilst aligning it with my personal questioning as well. My papers at university started to centre on the topic of love. One example was a comparison between one of William Shakespeare’s sonnets and Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, in which I analysed the differences between a “divine love” and a more “romantic love”.
More research followed, and soon I began a podcast inspired by one of my favourite short stories of all time. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s White Nights captures love most unconditionally and was the starting point of the podcast.
As of today, the podcast has grown enormously, and I cannot thank each guest enough for giving me the opportunity and pleasure to talk to them. One question that appears in each episode is quite intriguing: “What is your definition of love?” I seem to be failing to capture one definite idea of what love is. One might say that this is the beauty of it all.
With love, Melinda
With thanks
The people of love
I would also like to highlight some people. The “people of love” is what I would like to call them. These beautiful human beings have made my dream of researching love a reality. From the design of the website to the pictures and even the calculations, there are some people I cannot thank enough. Their profiles and contact details are below, in case you have a question or a request about their work.
Matthew Werleman
What I love doing
Designing brands and websites for innovators.
Where to reach me
Name to come
What I love doing
The calculations behind Love & Literature.