愛

Italian has now taught me the kanji for "love."   As the tenor and baritone in the opera arrive in disguise to woo their own fiancés to betrayal, they begin, "Amor.......amor....," serenaded by the surtitle, "愛."  Throughout the opera our little kanji friend joins to help tell the story with other kanji friends making many different types of love and love contexts.  Perhaps in the next few performances more will be unveiled.  But I have a start.  

And now I have encountered this word in Japanese.  I wonder when I learned it in English.  And I wonder if I have, yet.   What does it mean?  It seems like such a vague word that includes so many feelings and possibilities.  Love for one's family, love for one's friends, for places, for experiences, for arts.  Is it temporal or everlasting?  On the brink, or in the midst, or waiting its arrival?    

I've only just barely learned this word in Japanese to the point that I should be able to discern it from most other kanji.  I cannot write it, I don't know how to use it in speech or writing.  Something so familiar and yet so unknown.  A slow learning and that through time perhaps something will begin to emerge and make sense in a way as it always has from the beginning.