What Is Love? How We Define, Feel, and Sometimes Suffer It
A 90-minute session on the one word we all use and almost none of us can define. Not a relationship-advice hour and not a lecture — love for a parent, a partner, a friend, a pet, a hometown, a habit we can't quit. Fourteen independent cards; open four or five.
The opening question
How would you define love, in a single line?
Everyone in the room answers this in one line before any card is opened. Write the answers down; you will come back to them.
The cards
14 ways into the topic
Each card is independent. Your group votes on which to open, and four or five is plenty for an hour. Behind every card sit three prompts, one at a time, that only appear once it is opened on the board. Unopened cards keep for next time.
- 1
Saying I Love You
Some houses said it daily. Some never said it once.
- 2
What Films Taught You About Love
You learned the script before you'd met anybody.
- 3
Falling Out Of Love
The feeling leaves. Does the relationship have to?
- 4
Needing Someone Too Much
Where attachment ends and dependency starts.
- 5
Unconditional Love
Every love has terms. Nobody enjoys reading them.
- 6
What Your Parents Gave Up
The sacrifice was real. So is the bill.
- 7
Your Mother Or Your Partner
Somebody always asks you to pick a side.
- 8
Arranged Marriage And Love
One route starts with love. The other hopes for it.
- 9
When A Friend Gets Married
They didn't fight with you. They just stopped replying.
- 10
Loving A Pet
People who've had one don't argue about this. People who haven't do.
- 11
Love Yourself First
The advice everyone repeats and nobody can actually follow.
- 12
Loving The Place You Left
You couldn't wait to get out. Now you defend it to strangers.
- 13
Red Flags And Green Flags
More words for love than ever. Are we any better at it?
- 14
Why Love Is Overrated
Timing, money and temperament may matter more.
The line to leave with
You can name the condition your own love runs on — so the question is whether you'd still call it love after saying that condition out loud.
More boards,more ways in.
Every discussion we have run has a board behind it. Browse them by topic.