I spent three years attempting to do this. I wrote a blog about it, gave a TED talk about it, and was ultimately defeated by the endeavor. Love is central to the kind of world many of us wish for – where relationships are reconciled, justice triumphs, and generosity fulfills every need. Yet there is a problem with the word: it’s a kind of abstraction.
Without actual experience with commitment, generosity, kindness, correction, forgiveness, truth, or patience (among many other traits) within the specific context of relationship, Love remains a dream that we thought we had. To unveil the dream to others it demands examples or at least analogies. There must be embodiment, if not for any other reason than to serve as testimony to the reality that love does exist. Then, analogies can serve to explain the rest. Then the dream can spread. Then more embodiment can happen. Then more examples may be found. Then the world changes.