In his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention Mitt Romney spoke of the “unconditional love” his father taught him to share with others. For my whole life I’ve been told that love is its most pure when it is unconditional. My mother frequently tells me she loves me unconditionally. “What does that really mean?” I ask her, “That there is nothing I could possibly do to cost me your love?” If so, I do not want to be loved unconditionally. I do not want to be loved by anyone whom I cannot act badly enough to make them disown me. I do not want to be able to commit any crime and be forgiven automatically by my family and friends. I want to be held accountable.

Real love is the most conditional emotion that the human mind can experience. That’s right – the human mind. The heart does not experience emotion; it pumps blood. Love is based on rational decisions and our experiences that set the values by which we analyze people. If someone’s love for me is unconditional they have no real feelings for the person I am. They have not made judgments about the values I hold for them. They love an abstract, perverted version of me that I do not wish to know.