Accepting the people we care about without excluding their flaws allows us to turn them into absolutes. Absolutes can turn to abstracts, and the trouble with abstracts is that, eventually, we are bound to apply our own interpretations.

Parents look at their children and see visions of the future.
Lovers exchange a furtive glance and see hopes & dreams
wrapped up in a lingering kiss.
I look at her and see a ghost.
I see the past come to life, ready to swallow me whole.

I look at you and it's like looking into a mirror.
Just like the eyes that peer from my pale reflection,
neither one of you enjoy this image enough to
want to look at it every day.