Why Love is Blind

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it, virtues and vices floated around, not quite knowing what to do. One day, all of them were gathered together, and feeling more bored than ever.

Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: "Let's play hide-and-seek!" Everyone liked the idea and immediately, Madness shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!"

Since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness, all the others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started counting, "one, two, three ..."

As Madness counted, the vices and virtues ran off to look for places in which to hide.

Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon, while Treason hid in a pile of garbage.

Fondness curled up between the clouds and Passion went to the centre of the earth.

Lie said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake instead, whilst Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking.

Madness continued to shout out: "... 79, 80, 81... " By then, all the vices and virtues were well hidden except for Love. Fickle as Love is, he could not decide where to hide. And this should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide Love.

Madness counted, "... 95, 96, 97 ..."

Just as he got to 100, Love jumped into a rose bush. Madness turned around and shouted: "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Laziness was the first to be found, because he did not have the energy to hide. Then Madness spotted Tenderness in the horn of the moon, Lie at the bottom of the lake, and Passion at the centre of the earth.

One by one, Madness found them all, except for Love. He was getting desperate. Envious of Love, Envy whispered to Madness, "He is in the rose bush."

Madness grabbed a wooden pitch fork and stabbed wildly at the bush. He jabbed and stabbed until a heartbreaking cry made him stop.

Love appeared from the bush, with both hands covering his face. Blood oozed from his eyes and trickled down his fingers. Madness had stabbed out Love's eyes with his pitch fork.

"What have I done? What have I done?" Madness screamed. "I have blinded you! How can I repair the damage?"

Love answered: "You cannot repair my eyes. But if you really want to do something for me, you can be my guide."

And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.

Sent to Starmag by Aileen Wang