Like Vs. Love

This isn't the typical post regarding this topic. You know, the like v. love conversation that your parents probably had with you (as they did with me) when I had my first boyfriend. "But mom...I LOVE him!"..."You don't know what love is...you're only 13." Anyways, this post is something quite different.

I want to write about something that's been on my mind for the past few days. I've realized recently that I have the capacity to "love" someone, without "liking" them much. I won't say names, but there are people in my life that I wouldn't necessarily choose to have in my life, but because they are (whether through relation or not), I love them. It's an odd feeling to realize this, and I'm not sure how to explain it. For instance, I don't want to hang out with these people, but I also know that I love them, and wouldn't want anything to hinder their happiness or health. I wouldn't call the "love" that I have for them a passionate love, or a deep love like I feel for my husband and Avery and parents and others, but it's more of a responsible love.

According to Wikipedia (one of the best, but least reliable sources out there):
Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection.^[1]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 wife"). 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. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love^[2] to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love.^[3] Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

So, according to this source, I think see that there are different levels of love. I wouldn't be cold enough to say that I love a person in the same what that I love a meal, but it's difficult to describe the way that I love them.

This is probably a random ramble to you, but it's been something on my mind. What do you think? Are there people in your life that you "love", but don't "like"?