What is love?
One definition: wishing others well (benevolence) and acting
in their benefit (beneficence).
These should be universal and without exception. To make
exceptions is to establish a hierarchy of human value.
There is the occasional special affinity, which is what
seems to promote good, healthy, long-term relationships of friendship and
sometimes domesticity. That has its own flavour but is rare and has little to
do with the tide of humanity.
There is also the practical preference for the company of
her over her, him over him, but the ease with which such constellations flash
into existence and fade show that love has little presence here.
Where does emotion come in? Benevolence and beneficence have
their particular emotional flavours.
What about the other emotions of love, the love of poets and
songs?
These will betray love’s hitchhikers: applause, flattery,
self-flattery, sycophancy, bewitchment, materialism, sensualism, appetite,
attraction, desire, possession, entitlement, and other transactional
manifestations of self, usually with a good dose of projection thrown in.
Aside from the occasional special affinity, I’m happy to be
loved universally, impersonally; love with any hint of selfishness: I can do
without that, thank you. I do not want to be singled out and do not single out.