Did you ever wonder how Love is defined?

 

            By David McClelland

 

            "What's Love Got to Do with It?"  Tina Turner had a hit song with this title in 1993 and we were all singing it. Did we really understand what we were singing about and did we all mean the same thing?

            Albert Einstein said, "How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as love?"

            The Greeks had one definition of love , "Agape love",  as unconditional love. But, that uses love to define itself and isn't helpful.

            Four intelligent people could attempt to define "love" and would all arrive at different definitions. Try it. It isn't that straight forward. On the other hand, maybe each of us has to define love in terms of what it means to us. Maybe that is the secret.

            What is love? We use this four letter word all the time and in many contexts, but what does the word mean? Love may easily be defined as affection, infatuation, passion, lust, etc.  Does it matter whether the recipient of our love is an adult, a child or a pet? Is the love of one the same as the love of another? Probably not.

Love may be used as a noun (the love of one's work) or a verb (we love cooking). The noun may mean a strong, positive emotion. The verb may simply mean to enjoy. We can use love to describe how we feel about another person (I'm really in love with you.), a thing (Don't you just love this double-chocolate cake?) or even our job ("You know, I used to love this job, but now….").

It seems that love is centered in one's heart (brain?). It may be one of the strongest emotions we ever experience. Maybe it really does make the world go round.

            Finally, "love" is a score of "zero" in the games of tennis a squash. Finally!!! A definition that one can truly understand. Whew!!! Now, you either know more about love than you did before or are more thoroughly confused. Don't you just love it?