A disagreement can include love without making love responsible for removing every difference.

Affection and difference can occupy the same room. When people who care about each other disagree, there is often a quiet expectation that the caring should dissolve the disagreement, and when it does not, both sides start to doubt the caring. That is a heavy job to hand to affection. Some differences are simply real, and they can sit alongside a bond rather than under it.

In an argument with someone you love, separate the two questions. One is whether you agree; the other is whether you are still on good terms. Answer the second out loud, and let the first stay open.