Crushed by a crush

"Sometimes the more you wonder why, the worse it seems to get." Duncan Sheik

There's no explaining human chemistry. What repels at one point may compel at a later date. So how permanent is allure anyway? Uh, not very.

Only a few specific details have lured me in for a Crushing Crush, primary of which has been blue eyes. (That's the only consistent detail about all my lovers as well, but that's in the realm of real relationships, not this frothy fiction I'm talking about.) There must also be intelligence or the strong suggestion of it, which must be consumable and visible by conversation and communication -- this is a constant attention-getter for me, too. (No "looks pretty but can't talk" for me.) Oooh, and a nice mix of intensity and vulnerability is magnetic, too.

Most of my crushes have been on people I will never meet. Like the chiffon merinque of their construction, these crushes are on the illusions created by other creative types, mostly: Lucy Lawless as Xena. Gillian Anderson as Agent Scully. And even Jared Leto (in any number of roles) and Jake Gyllenhaal (he has the sweetest face I've ever seen).

I read on a bulletin board online that crushes feel so nice because the object of attention can still be perfect in the imagination, since reality hasn't had a chance to wreck the dream. That's probably pretty accurate. And the nice thing about crushes is that they pass, they fade. While no intrusion of reality ever wilts the fiction of a crush, that same lack of oxygen from real life starves it. It can't grow; so it dies. As it should.

But they sure are fun while they last!

What details grab you? Are you a sucker for a crush when you see or hear a certain thing?