Heads versus Hands

I'm reading (listening to) The Company by Robert Littell. I love movies and novels set in Washington, D.C., and my stepdaughter used to work for the "Company" — I'm enjoying this book greatly.

A statement by a female character who is a CIA trainer grabbed my ear as relevant to this blog:

You beautiful boys never get it right. And you won't get it right until you lose your beauty. It's not your beauty that seduces us, but your voices, your words. We are seduced by your heads, not your hands.

I've stated before that I don't like the long e-mail and phone relationships that typically go along with meeting someone online. I believe those protracted communications engender a false sense of intimacy. I can so easily fall in love with the way a person writes and speaks (witness: EEFFH) and yet find no connection when we meet face-to-face. This character's words reassure me that I'm not alone.