Inexplicably, it appears without attribution and with the characters' names slightly altered in the 1992 Max Lucado book, And the Angels were Silent . One is left wondering if other Lucado stories presented in that book were written by someone else, too. Questions of physical appeal aside, we're left wondering whether the people we're corresponding with are every bit as wonderful in real life, or whether they're putting on a clever act and taking us in. This uncertainty leaves us with the uneasy feeling that although we think we know the other person, we're never sure. A legend about this anxiety being faced and the situation working out in fairy tale fashion is therefore going to fall upon very receptive ears.
Society places a premium on attractiveness.
As much as we decry the unfairness of this valuation, we do little to change it, even within ourselves. Look again at the story and how touching it is. Now look inside and ask why it felt right that the soldier who greeted the older woman instead of running away should be rewarded with the pretty girl he'd ached for. If we truly believed the love of a good woman was its own best reward and that looks didn't matter, we'd have had the hero walk past the blonde almost without seeing her in his haste to reach the woman he'd lost his heart to. Were love the important thing, we'd have been quite happy to have the 40-ish, frumpy woman turn out to be the real Hollis and for the story to end with the two lovers walking away arm in arm.