Question: As a budding Buddhist, one cannot help but investigate day to day phenomena with the magnificent tools made available to us by the Buddha. 

An interesting thought occurred to me today and prompted me to ponder the nature of love. The conclusion that was arrived at the end of this particular stream of consciousness is that love is non hate, non greed, and (hopefully) non delusional. It is experiential, highly conditional, impinges on all faculties, and reverberates through the heartstring. As with all formations, it is impermanent. Wordly beings crave it, but few truly uncover it. 

How do other lay people conceptualize love? And how would a monk approach this investigation?

Answer: 
Love is a very overloaded term. There are many different phenomena that fall under the umbrella label of "love":

* There is love as obsessive `kama` (liking/desire) towards someone or something. This should probably be classified as `lobha` (greed, obsessive desire).
* There is non-reciprocated love, longing for something you can't get. This is probably `tanha` (unsatisfied thirst, craving) - the root of `dukkha`.
* There is love towards your mother, family, friends, town, country. This could be pure `metta` (loving-kindness) or metta with attachment. The first is a wholesome kind of love, producer of good karma. The second subtype, love with attachment, will serve as the root of `dukkha` once the impermanence kicks in.
* There is love of self. This can be an egoistic form of love, or a kind of acceptance/appreciation - a factor of healing.
* There is love as unconditional acceptance/appreciation of someone or everyone and everything -- a non-dual kind of love that does not draw lines between "self" and "other". In my understanding, such love is a factor of Enlightenment.

Summarizing the above, there seems to be two main types of love: attachment-type and acceptance/appreciation-type. The first type is a factor of `dukkha`, the second type is a factor of good karma, healing, Enlightenment.
The deepest description of love I have come across in my walk is a state where one does not oblige oneself to draw a distinction between one and the subject of one's love. One can give freely to the other, not out of obligation or expectation or even altruism, but simply because one does not see a reason to distinguish between giving to their love and giving to oneself.