Maybe the issue here is our lack of vocabulary rather than any intent to show affection. The English language only has one word for love and it is used interchangeably for almost everything. We can say I love my husband, or my wife and I love chocolate or McDonalds. Each is using the same word and it is only in the context that we can ascertain the difference.

The word love in the English is almost invariably associated with romantic love. The Greeks, on the other hand, have four different words to describe love. Each word gives a different nuance to the word that helps us to understand more fully what is being spoken of. The four words are Eros, Storge, Philia, and Agape. Eros is a love based on attraction; Storge is what we find in families between different members; Philia, is a love of kinship and shows itself in altruism; Agape, is the unconditional love for others in spite of their character flaws and weaknesses.

It was once thought that the Inuit people (Eskimos) had an unusually large number of words for snow – and it was presumed this was as a result of the influence that said snow had in their life. However research has discovered that rather than there being a large number of distinct words, what the Inuit people had done was to add a suffix or prefix to their word for snow to give a specific description to ‘this snow’. For example ‘snow on the ground’, ‘drifting snow’, ‘falling snow’. And maybe this is a possible solution for ourselves. And wouldn’t you know it, we do it already! Take the word “paint “. We have oil-paint, acrylic paint, water-colour paint. Adding a prefix describes and defines “paint”.

Maybe rather than stopping loving, we become more vocabulary rich! God is love (agape) after all!

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