Love...

I love my daughters. I love my family. I love my dog. I love my friends. I love my job. I love my work. I love Flagstaff... There are a lot of things that I love...

Is love an overused word? Or is it ill-defined?

How does one define love?

I thought I loved two women, one at a time of course... but none the less, I have come to realize that I still love each of them, for different reasons. Each of them will always have a special place in my heart... for any future woman, I hope that you will be able to understand that...

As I have previously mentioned... I think that friendship is a deeper relationship than marriage; partners (spouses) should be friends first and foremost! So is the love of a friend more important? Or is that the crux... a definition...

Let's take an opposite extreme...

Define hate? I don't hate anything, but know many people that have used the word "hate" in describing various things. Hate, is also a very overused word, at best ill-defined as well... For this discussion, let's define it as, "an extreme dislike, to the point of disgust." Using this definition, I myself have to admit near "hate" for some things...

However, how does an individual profess "hate" for something that ultimately was created for a good purpose? Just because something exercised a free-will judgement to choose a different path...

Here in lies the ultimate dichotomy... does good exist without evil? Silence without noise? Positive without negative?

Love without hate?

Can one know about light, without knowing darkness? Can one experience cold, without comparing it to heat? Or ultimately... is darkness the absence of light; cold, the absence of heat; silence, the absence of noise; evil, the absence of good; hate... the absence of love...

So help me define love! Is it only the absence of hate? Or is it something much more...