The ancient Greeks spoke of eight kinds of love: Eros (sexual love), Philia (friendship), Storge (love of kin and children), Ludus (playful love or flirtation), Mania (obsessiveness), Pragma (mature love), Philautia (love of self) and Agape (unconditional or spiritual love).
But there are many kinds of love, some seemingly noble: empathy, generosity, love of country, love of the home, and of nature and culture. And there are forms of love that dip into the traditionally sinful: for example, the desire for the attributes or possessions of others, or envy. Five of the other seven deadly sins — greed, pride, gluttony, sloth and lust are just forms of love taken too far and turned ugly.
Love is more than chocolate-filled cardboard hearts or stomach butterflies or sappy romantic comedies or misremembered Shakespearean sonnets or late night drunken confessions. It is ephemeral yet physical, poetic yet blunt, innocent yet passionate. It is eternal. And then suddenly it is not. And then it boomerangs. And it morphs.