Love – it’s something that we hear about in songs on the radio, see on television, and feel for ourselves, but what really is it? During the dinner conversation with Dr. Alvarez, we brainstormed ways to define love and thought of what it means to us. These definitions/associations included warmth, God, “to will the good of another,” happiness, and others – a full whiteboard full of ideas. Often when we talk about love, we are actually talking about “socially constructed love” as Dr. Alvarez put it. This is love as defined by society and depicted in romantic comedies and love songs. But love can take on many forms and is not always pink and bubbly, but can be painful too.

To demonstrate the various ways people can experience love, Dr. Alvarez read us a few poems, one of which he wrote himself. These depicted love as something very complicated and a different experience for everyone.

One point that Dr. Alvarez brought up that I found interesting is that we don’t talk about love enough because society views talking about love as a sign of weakness. However, Dr. Alvarez believes in using the power of love to make a global difference.

Before listening to Dr. Alvarez, I, too, talked little about love. But after this dinner conversation, I am interested to learn more about what love means to different people and how it impacts their lives.