Love is humanity's most complex and enigmatic emotion. It exists as the only possible empirical proof of transcendent existence and even God himself.

The paradox of it all naturally arises from love's maddening imperfections. It tugs at our heartstrings - in both directions - daily. It's the best and the worst of times; times are worst with and without it.

Women and men alike are acutely aware of love's duplicity - its good and its bad. Joni Mitchell put it into words for us when she sang so beautifully, "I've looked at love from both sides now."

Carrie, from Sex and the City, is a love guru. As precocious as Joni Mitchell, she translates the raw emotion from human relationships into words that beautifully represent a tangible perspective. She views both sides; we live vicariously through her perfect interpretation.

Recall the scene in Sex and the City when Carrie and Aidan, estranged lovers, meet again. They see each other for the first time in years after an emotionally draining breakup. Their surprise unplanned rendezvous at the corner is the quintessential scene that displays love's true colors - from both sides.

The scene begins with Carrie happily walking down the street when she suddenly notices Aidan, walking ahead of her, from behind. One can virtually see their shared memories flashing through her mind as her heart beats out of her chest. As he slowly turns towards her, she realizes he's carrying a baby. She is stunned.

They acknowledge one another and begin a short, uncomfortable, yet polite conversation. She looks at the baby and clumsily says to Aidan, "Oh, um, congratulations!" with a painfully forced smile that was blatantly unsuccessful at concealing her internal anguish and regret. Aidan happily replies, "Thank you, he's beautiful, right?" Carrie's face, despite her best efforts, evinces every part of her emotional nausea.

A moment later, a woman walks up to Aidan. He introduces her as his wife with an unequivocal look of enamoration as he speaks of his situation and new family. Carrie's heart is broken in a single instant. Love, that duplicitous force, has single-handedly and simultaneously made one heart glow and one heart break.

Carrie's dilemma stems from her fear of commitment and true love that allowed her to let the best thing in her life, Aidan, go. She argued then that it was a case in which the love is too much to take.

Yet Aidan did everything right. He was and is everything all women dream of. Carrie, to her own detriment, was so wrapped up in her vain bachelorette lifestyle that she couldn't stand to sacrifice it for a man who would have done anything for her. He truly exemplified unconditional love. In the decision she was remiss; because of it, he deserved better and she simply didn't deserve him.

Although Carrie's forced politeness prevented her from the proper ecstatic reaction in recognition of Aidan's good fortune, it was that very happiness from new love that diminished and destroyed her happiness, in the end. Aidan wanted that level of happiness with Carrie, but she let him go. He got what he deserved, and as she realized how much she had let go of, in the end, so did she.

Carrie is left heartbroken and alone.

Love is a funny thing. It plays with our minds; it makes us miserable; makes us do crazy things; it makes us inebriated with happiness; it is the reason we feel at all. Yet the old aphorism remains true. It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved before.