by Travis Casey

Created on: January 13, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

If it is, too bad it's not deaf and dumb as well. Love is not so much blind as it is visually impaired. We may see things in a person we don't like , but they are blurred out overwhelmingly by the attributes that we find appealing. Love is more blinkered than blind.

We focus straight ahead on the good things we see in a person which enables us to ignore or disregard the "bad". How many people can see through an ugly person? That would be very easy if you are looking for a sincere, honest and caring person. One cannot find those attributes on the surface.

If one seeks physical beauty alone, then we could get tangled up with a very nasty person indeed. Yet that could be blocked out by the beauty factor. The trophy wife may be a very unpleasant person. But if she looks good - and if that is our primary goal in a mate, then the fact that she is a witch may be overshadowed by her beauty. And her partner may be totally oblivious to her vile side.

I have yet to meet the perfect person. And that's probably true for the very vast majority of people. So love becomes a game of compromise and blocking out certain aspects of a persons' traits and locking in to those things that we consider more important.

Humans are much more complex, but compare it to a house or car. We may love our house or car, but there will be certain things about them that we don't particularly like. But those minor nuisances do not outweigh our overall love of them. I love Jaguar cars. No matter what. So I have a blind spot if there is something not right about them. If the trunk is too small, so what? It's a Jag. If I don't like the shape of a certain model, so what? It's a Jag. The same can be done with the person you love.

Our sights in a mate are predetermined. We know what we want in a companion, thus other imperfections become irrelevant over the virtues we seek.

"I want a young, virile, fun loving man" could overshadow the fact that he smokes, drinks, swears and has tattoos. Just as "I want a caring, loving and adoring wife" could overshadow the fact that she weighs 350 pounds and ugly as sin. Love is as blind as to where our values lie.

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