Listener question: I guess this is a ‘what is love?’ and ‘am I normal?’ question to which the answer is probably ‘who the hell is there to know one way or the other?’ but just out of curiosity:-

My Mother has been diagnosed with what is probably terminal cancer; we’ll know the prognosis this week.  Ours has been a strained relationship to say the least of it and, while we’ve got things on to a more or less amicable footing, there’s no real intimacy there, and therefore hardly any response inside me other than ‘I hope she goes peacefully’ and even that feels like one of those learned responses you speak of.  On the other hand, a friend who I don’t see much of but pops into my thoughts periodically has also just been diagnosed with what is probably terminal cancer and I feel much more shocked and sorry about that.  This isn’t something I’m especially perturbed about but it does raise the question ‘what is love?’ and perhaps just a little bit of ‘am I normal?’

Much love, whatever that is...