right values

So I've been thinking about what love exactly is - and it's difficult to come up with a single definition. The dictionary has a whole bunch of definitions for it. Other than a score in tennis, most of the defintions have words like affection, devotion, & attraction as the crux of what love is.

Part of the problem is the English language, which has a single word for a whole bunch of different ideas - I love my wife, my cat, my children, that joke you just told, that TV show, and I love to play the guitar. And of course, I don't mean the same thing in each case.

Although certainly in different amounts, I value the object of affection in each case. And maybe that's the trick - the things we love are the things where we focus our attention and they are the things we value.

But... if I value hatred, then I don't love. So perhaps love is where we value the things that we are supposed to value - when we care about the things in life that are really worth caring about. Perhaps love is simply having the right values.