Love and Friendship

What I used to think of as the differing types of 'love' are finally [slowly] becoming concretely defined in my miniscule mind.

Family love is a sort of tolerance for those related to us by blood.
If you can't tolerate [to some extent] your relations, it might just be time to divorce yourself [at least mentally] from them.

Love of the arts is the passion of expression. "I love this song. "I love this painting." "Didn't you just love that play?" Kind of "I'm passionately fond of this" the word love just being easier to say.
If you can't express yourself artistically, then you should at least be able to appreciate the expressions of those who can. If you can't appreciate them then you have no place in my world.

Love at first sight is lust, pure and simple. How can you love someone that you've never met before? Someone you know nothing about? It takes time to develop and nurture love beyond the lust of first sight.

Lovers are not those whom you love, but those whom you lust with. The very word 'lover' brings to mind [my mind, anyway] an affair, adultery, anything but the pure meaning of the emotion you feel for someone you want to spend your life with.

Friends are those people you've come to know, who have come to know you and still you let each other live because, after all, who else would put up with you? Who else would listen to your tirades about your family, your crying over another friend's death, your woes with your current living situation?

Friends are people you can love purely, because they are who they are, and you wouldn't change a thing about them.

I want a friend to spend my life with.