What is love?

I was incredulous. A friend asked me to define love. I just laughed but I didn't know why. It struck me about as possible to answer that as to say what time is...ethereal substance that we all know but can never catch on our way to cradle to grave. The rational half of my brain could only come up with saying things like "God is love" and "love is an action that mimics God". I could only get stuck in trying to not say "Love is when..." because love as a noun insisted louder in my mind than love as a verb. But it was all rather unsatisfying to give such an answer. It took until 1 am that night for the other side of my brain to break through.



What is love?

    Walk to infinity and ask God his name.
    He'll laugh and he'll say that

        some things cannot be named,
        like the wild cannot be tamed,
        but if you really need to know --
            Oh
                Little
                        Man --
        My name,
            and love is,
                I AM!

        And like the ocean at the shore:
        to know it any more you must

                leave
                    the
                        sand.

And then I will know?

    No, but you'll know your are in it.

        In
            love.

Christopher P. Smith

Kathmandu, Nepal

February 12, 2013