Infatuation is when you think he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Conners. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger and nothing like Robert Redford - but you'll take him anyway.

Viorst contrasts the projection-heavy fantasy of infatuation with the clear-eyed acceptance of love. Infatuation assembles an ideal partner by borrowing glamour, intellect, virtue, humor, and athleticism from famous men—an imagined composite that no real person can match. Love begins when those borrowed attributes fall away and the beloved is seen as ordinary, mixed, and imperfect. The punchline reversals (each trait reassigned to an incongruous celebrity) underscore how arbitrary our early idealizations can be. Yet the closing “you’ll take him anyway” frames love not as resignation but as commitment: choosing a real person over an invented ideal, and valuing attachment, companionship, and authenticity above status or fantasy.