Love, to be sure, is a passion, a physical stirring of the emotions. But it is more. It is a state of grace, one that brings us closer to a universal, governing truth.

We have struggled to grasp this truth, but it has remained elusive. We have striven to understand the significance and purpose of our existence with the hope that we might live our lives in a moral and meaningful way.

Logic, of course, fails us. Rational thought leads us into an existential dark hole where inexplicable paradoxes taunt us. Why is there so much pain, poverty, destruction and death amid the abundance of beauty and plenty? Why must there be so much hardship and heartache? Why must sadness rob us of joy and happiness?

Doubt sits on our shoulders like some nettlesome bird and pecks away at our conscience. We had hoped that we might find answers in the rituals, liturgies and teachings of churches, synagogues and mosques. Few answers, however, come to us through the medium of organized religion.

Yet, we continue to have faith that we are more than mere accidents straddling a small ball spinning around the sun on some frivolous joyride. We believe that there is more to be found at the end of the rainbow than just another question mark.

We love, and therefore, we are. We are one, and there is something Divine in this.

William S. Cohen, a former U.S Secretary of Defense, and his wife, Janet Langhart Cohen, a former television journalist, are authors of Love In Black and White: A Memoir of Race, Religion and Romance, which is being published this Valentine's Day by Rowman & Littlefield.