"Love is any of a number of emotion and experiences related to a sense of strong affection.
The word 'love' can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my girlfriend"). This diversity of meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.
As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep,
ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person."
Quite a good explanation of love. A bit clinical, of course, but still quite good. (Stole it from Wikipedia.) I suppose it mention the pleasure and the pain of it somewhere in there, but I'm not really sure this is how I would describe it. Probably just something like "yeah... so love sucks - stay out of it for your own good".
Maybe it's just me, but do you ever get the feeling that the world would be a better place without love? I mean, just a clinical world with logical decisions free from emotion? No wars because people would realise they're illogical, no pain because people wouldn't have any feelings, no more people because no one would roll around in the sack.
Then again... no looking at the sky and be happy just because the weather's nice. No sadness when bad things happen. No anger when things go wrong.
Maybe the world would be a happier place if people loved more? Maybe I would be a happier person if I loved someone?
Then again... maybe I wouldn't. Maybe it would just end in pain and tears and bitterness... Is really is a shame that there's only one way to find out...