“When you know, you know.” The common phrase used when someone is sure they love someone and should be with them for the rest of their lives. Yet it seems as if no one really knows how to define love and when there is an attempt to create one there is suddenly a smorgasbord of definitions. Love is an action, a choice, a feeling, an absolute, is spiritual, romantic, familiar and on and on and on. This story proves how far fetched the definitions of love can really become.
Four friends begin discussing love in a well lit room over a casual drink before dinner. Irony lies in the fact that the main commentator in this conversation is a heart doctor who at one point was in seminary for five years. Furthermore, the group is made up of four divorcees who are now remarried and using their life experiences to explain the intricacies of love.
As humans can we fully grasp love? If the definition of love we read in scripture is made up of standards no man can fully accomplish, if God is love, if love really is an absolute then will these conversations always prove to be futile? The author uses this group of adults to stage a conversation that has probably taken place in one form or another countless times. They have discussed the spiritual aspect, touched on the philosophical aspect, the extremity of love amidst abuse, love that leads to death, the precious love of an old married couple, physical love, sentimental love, carnal love, failed love, lost love and in the end seemed to have accomplish hardly anything.
The definition of love dimmed with the light in the room and the conversation ended with the sound of hearts beating. Maybe that’s the definition of love – life.