Love is a (nearly) useless word

Confession: I hate the word “love” the way some people hate the word “moist.”

Mooooooiiiiiist.

It’s not that I’m a cold-hearted skeptic. I certainly feel love, in some cases more deeply than I understand. My problem is that because of the way we use “love” in modern, English-speaking culture, the word is essentially meaningless. And when words don’t have meaning, they have no power, and since love is arguably the most powerful force in all of creation, it irks me that we’ve diluted it with o...