4 Views of Love

Here's something difficult about love. . .

You can never know whether a person forgives you when you wrong them. Therefore it is existentially important to you. Neither can you know whether a person loves you. It's something you just have to believe or hope. --Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World

and something incredibly moving about love. . .

Love is energy. . .

Japandroids

    and love is hope. . .

. . and the funny thing is, at times people don't even recognize it

Because she wasn't listening. It wasn't a war story. It was a love story. --Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

Love might be the most oversimplified and least understood emotion.  Not to mention the most necessary.  We're taught to say it when very young and expect to hear it from parents, spouses, children, and those closest to us.  Yet, the word is often treated very superficially, as a Google Image search will illustrate: it's about hearts, holding hands, and the color red.  The artifacts above are meant to stretch the word, to suggest the different ways it can be felt, and even question whether we know exactly what we mean when we say it.  Artifacts 2, 3, and 4 convey the idea that love transcends the romantic associations we make with it.  Love can be about creating something beautiful, about being swept up in the energy of a moment, and about striving for more in one's life.