How deep is your love?

This short article is adapted from Moonpointer.

In ‘Kin, The Good Neighbours’ by Holly Black, Aubrey the faerie father tests the human Thaddeus on his love for his daughter Nia by asking him to pick her among her three other similar-looking sisters. In truth, Thaddeus only had superficial understanding of Nia, as he was mostly entranced only by her appearance. He should have realised this, and declined to ‘guess’ which was Nia, since he didn’t really deserve her hand in that sense.

However, in the nick of time, a friend hinted to him to look at the sisters’ feet. As Nia had danced with Thaddeus, her feet were muddy. Pointing at her, Thaddeus ‘guessed’ correctly. Along this line, I think this is a good test of how mindful we are of those we think we know and care about - even though Thaddeus was still judging only by appearances (of mud on her feet) - but you get the idea. If we imagine we really know someone inside-out, would we be able to discern this person… from not just any crowd, but a crowd of ‘clones’? How deep (or shallow) is your love (or infatuation)?

Beauty is only skin deep,
and the skin is not very deep.
- Stonepeace

And this reminds me of the song by Bee Gees.