What is love? Baby, hurt me...

A friend of mine once asked me " Is love a real thing? Have you ever experienced it?" We were not very close back then, or I was afraid, so I said " Well, maybe, I don't know. Maybe people created it to give mening to otherwise meaningless life they have".
I came back to the person after two months and told out of the blue " Do you remember once you asked me about love? And I was not sincere with you. I want to tell you now that Love does exist and I have experienced it". And to his bewilderment I continued to share all the true destinguishing traits of love. Love is uncontrollable. We just pick someone who we allow to hurt us endlessly...Love is sacrifice, a chosen, acknowledged, controlled, willing sacrifice. You know the person does all the wrong things, but you accept it, deal with it, love with it, love through it. Love is letting people see the true us - vulnerable, insecure. Love is timeless, sexless. Love is a soul connection. Love has many faces. Love is in details. Love is Life. It needs time to realize what Love is. I have plenty to do. But one thing I know now is that love is hurt. I don't mean it brings pain and all the stuff songs and movies are about. I mean love is hurting the person  you love more than anyone, and accepting, dealing with maximum hurt from the person who loves you.
Also, love is noticing. Noticing the bow tie you brought for your friend that he wears on a special occasion, love is buying the ticket for a play next to your friend when they don't expect it, love is a friend cooking your favorite thing every time they can make it, love is buying flowers, love is buying warm clothes and cold ice cream, love is wearing that bracelet your love gave you and smiling when looking at it every time. Love is brawling over who is taking who home. Love is listening to that song, and singing this one together. Love is lighting each other's cigarettes and breaking them when there  are too many of them. Love is long talks and short walks. Love is practical, very very practical.