Love

The other day my friend and I were talking about the definition of 'love'.
She in particular doesn't believe a person can be 'in love', yet she does believe in love itself. Her argument is that the feeling of being in love is a chemical reaction in the brain.
I find this perplexing because basically anything we feel or the way we react to something has to do with science. But I believe it's also psychological. Some people can close off their emotions, preventing those reactions like blushing and smiling and crying or even feeling anything at all physically. But even still, they are going to acknowledge the fact in their head that something in particular was hurtful, or enjoyable or that they care for someone. Sometimes you don't feel things but they are still there.

I'm kind of rambling here but I guess what I'm trying to say is that love, like happiness, sadness, or anger is a term to put a name on what goes on inside our bodies when we react to something psychological.

There are of course different kinds of love too;
Like when you are attached to an object that holds sentimental value, we say "oh, I love that ___" as if to personify it. And maybe we just use the term 'love' too loosely but I know I've had this kind of attachment for certain objects. We connect them to people, memories, places, and they take on a sort of spirit, like if they went missing or were thrown out we'd feel a loss close to that of the death of a person.

Then there is the love for pets, which isn't a whole lot different from people because they're living, breathing beings. But I think the difference is that we can't establish as close a relationship with animals as we can with people. We connect with people through words and similar interactions. Animals don't talk to us nor can they relate to our daily struggles etc., so we feel closer to people in that way.
Although I think there are different kinds of love among people as well.

The love you feel for your parents or siblings is probably different from your friends, with the exception of the friends you might consider family. And among relationships with other people, your love for someone in particular might be different from a close friend. You could be attracted in every way to a friend but never be able to love them romantically. And when you do love someone romantically you feel a different connection with them than your other friends. Which I think what being in love means.

In short, I think it is ridiculous to not believe in love. It's like not believing in happiness. The problem is that language can only create a fuzzy understanding of things and we tend to generalize things that way. There are different perceptions of feelings so you can't really write down a solid definition of one.