And of course the word love has many shades of meaning, as do many, many of the words in our living, breathing language

Life was very sad if there were not - and unbearably so if one's experience with romantic love turned one into an incurable cynic.

When I was nineteen," she said, "I was in love with being in love, I think. And I was given no chance to discover how deep - or not deep - that love would have gone.