To love or not to love?

Well the obvious answer would be "to love" right? But what does it mean "to love" or better yet what is "love". Well lets do what we all learned in primary school, look it up in the dictionary. The "merriam-webster" online dictionary has about 9 definitions for love, which is probably not even half of all the definitions that people have come up with.

I'll use some of merriam-webster's definitions as a guide for the rest of my entry. 1) The first definition that webster gives is: strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties and uses maternal love for a child love as an example of this love. This is pretty basic, probaly the first thing we think of when we think of love..
2)The second definition merriam-webster uses for love is: An attraction based on sexual desire and uses affection and tenderness felt by lovers as an example of this love. Pretty easy to understand and relate to that definition. We probably have felt some level of this love at some point...
3)The third definition webster uses to define love is: an affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests and for this one it uses love for old schoolmates as and example. I guess this is what we would call Philia love or brotherly love. Which I comes from our friends...
4) And finally webster defines love as the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration and uses love for baseball as an example. I would say that this type of love is a little more superficial..Our love of things...

Well after reading all this I have to admit that I am no where closer to being able to define "love" or to answer my first question: "what does it mean to love?" But maybe that's the beauty of it?? Maybe love doesn't really have a set definition and it's up to each one of us to come up with our own...
But there are some key things that came up within each definition; affection, strong.., devotion, attachment,and tenderness... I think that these are important characteristics of loving.

But if you're still unsure of what love is, here is the best definition I have been able to come up with: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails....
1 Corinthians 13, 1-8