Maybe it is the season, maybe it is something else, but there seems to be a lot of talk about love these days. Whether the topic be about friends with bennies, or taking a significant other for life, the underlying emotion is love; to me at any rate.

It's such an innocuous word, love. All to often thrown around at a whim, or a panging of the soul, but what does it mean? Sure we all have our own definition of the word, our own belief, or idea. Often, however, it isn't a idea that translates in conversation. Maybe bits and pieces fit some generalized vague definition, but can we ever say yes that is love? To add proof to the concept of love being vague, is our endless need to add adjectives preceding the word such as Romantic... Platonic.. Unconditional...

I'm sorry but shouldn't all love be unconditional? What does it say about you, or me, as a person if we give our love freely, but with strings attached? Perhaps that is the lesson we all must learn in the grandiose scheme of things, to give our love freely, with out exception, or expectation of love in return. Imagine the world in which there was love but none of the usual hangups associated with the word.

Then again, my understanding of the word may be fundamentally flawed. There may be more to love, then just caring about the well-being of another person. Perhaps the gift of love requires return in kind. Such a thought saddens me, even if I see it a constant reality.

Perhaps, it is time we stopped asking "How could you?" and started saying "Good for you!". Perhaps, it is time for us to see that love is nothing more then wanting to make another person happy, and doing whatever is in out purview to sustain that happiness. Perhaps, it is time to take ourselves out of the equation and just concentrate on everyone else.

Imagine if that was our reality. Would religion look the same? Would the world look the same? Probably not, it would probably be an alien and frightening world to each and everyone of us.

Maybe so, but we would never have to wonder if someone loved us again. We would already know.