I'm not deeply experienced with love. What I've know of it has been brief, but powerful. In fact, I'm just the silent observer of such things and cannot fully engage in the party. I want to relate what I know of love, based on the observations I've made over the years. This is more of a diagram really, and is clinical insomuch as I don't have the personal knowledge to elucidate my perceptions.

Physical: Attraction. Desire. Sexuality. These things all make up our physical urgings for tangible connection. This is important, as it is a core component in relating to a partner. Physical connection (whether it be sexual or otherwise) tells us that what we're doing is real. It's the conduit of all of the other aspects of love, but it can also stand on its own. Without physical connection, humans are incapable of fully processing the entire experience of love. Whether it be sex, holding hands, or simply viewing the object of our affections, we need some sort of confirmation to make ourselves understand what we're going through. When a partner is gone, we rely on our physical perceptions to support our memory. So physical absolutely transcends more than just sex; its the binding connection.

Intellectual: There must be a similarity of the minds to sustain a long-term relationship. Ultimately, we have to understand our partner's thought process to understand his/her wishes and desires on more than a superficial level. A discrepancy in intelligence does not necessarily exclude companionship, but can we truly love if we're not on some similar level with our partner?

Emotional: People need to find an outlet for the things that build up inside of us. Love is ultimately an emotion, and we need to observe and accept the emotions within to prove the love without. You cannot know love until you process it through the core of your feelings. This isn't ultimately about a connection; love isn't always mutual, and sometimes...it's one-sided. In a relationship that's supposedly built around love, however, that emotional connection (share the feelings, y'all) is vital. Love is an emotion and we are emotional creatures. It works out nicely, if not necessarily to our greatest happiness.

Spiritual: When it gets down to it, love is about the soul. Whether or not it's influenced by religion is irrelevant. That thing that makes us what we are, that allows us to sympathize and abhor, love and hate, is something akin to the idea of a soul. Perhaps the soul is nothing more than the final conglomeration of emotional, physical, and intellectual aspects. Perhaps it's not. Love is about many, many different things. Without that overall product to process and express love, it's naught but a word that we hear in our everyday interactions.

Love is more than a connection. Love is neither good, nor evil. Love just is, and it exists as the gateway to what humanity is all about.

In the dichotomy of life and death, love is ultimately the boat that ferries us to and from both of our destinations.

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