It's interesting that (romantic) love is such a central precept of our culture. I actually spent many years believing that it was my central principal as well, my driving force so to speak. With time I realized that actually that core, important value for me was freedom rather than love.

I guess the point I'm meandering towards is that love (at least in the romantic sense) is definitely not the be all and end all of many people's lives. For others, for sure, it's their core principal. We are conditioned though to believe everybody has to 'be with someone' but this isn't really the case. There are actually recent studies which suggest that single-by-choice people can have richer and more socially involved lives than members of couples. Certainly food for thought :)