The opposite of love is not hate.

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." -Elie Wiesel 

I read the book 'Night' when I was a sophomore in high school. This quote has always stuck with me. I think there is such truth behind this statement. I be if you were to ask 10 people off the street what the opposite of love was, most, if not all would say hate.  was one of them, if you were to ask me I'd answer the same way...without thinking. Maybe that's the problem. The fact that people often say what they are used to hearing instead of taking the time to think. I'll talk more about this next week. It's what I like to call the battle between true beliefs and accepted truths.
The issue with the accepted truth in this scenario is that love and hate are placed on the same scale. Do they belong on the same line? I don't know but I don't think so. You see, love and hate are a lot more similar than one may think. Yes, they are manifestations of positive and negative but that doesn't mean that as a whole they are opposites. It seems strange, I know, but when you break it down it makes more sense.
Love and hate are both emotions. What do they both have in common? They are both extremes. They both require passion, without passion people wouldn't get to the point of love or hate. They also require investment, emotional investment. Without emotions invested there wouldn't be any reason to reach those extremes. One of the most compelling similarities between the two is energy. Especially the amount of energy invested and used. Both emotions require the same high amounts of energy to even reach these feelings. I mean, for the most superficial example love and hate are both represented with the shades of red. You see there is a fine line between love and hate. The only defining factor is circumstance. Whether the circumstances harbor positive or negative feelings. Love and hate are most like two sides of the same coin, different but together.
      When you think of indifference as the opposite of love it begins to make more sense. Indifference is a prime example of the absence of f emotional investment and invested emotion. Indifference is not extreme at all. It's nonchalant and indescript. That is what sets it on the other end of the spectrum from love and hate. They don't need to travel the same scale but the don't belong on opposite ends either.