I think the text touches on something that goes beyond passion: the moment when the image we create of someone meets the real person.
At first sight, there is passion, because passion doesn't need to know the other person. It can be born precisely from what we imagine. We create an image, project our desires, plans, and possibilities onto it, almost as if we were drawing someone on a very fragile piece of paper.
The problem begins when the drawing meets reality. Water blurs the ink, the paper gets crumpled, and that real person can't... and shouldn't... completely live up to what we imagined.
That's why I see something almost like a kind of Pygmalion syndrome in the text: not simply falling in love with someone, but trying to make reality fit the image we created of them. As long as there is distance, the image can be perfect. When there is closeness, it begins to disappear.
And perhaps that's where the difference between passion and love lies.
To me, love doesn't exist at first sight. At first sight, there is passion.
Love begins afterward, when the illusion is gone and something remains.
That doesn't simply mean throwing away the image and accepting only reality. It means negotiating between the two. Recognizing what I imagined in you, but also recognizing who you really are. Maturity lies precisely in being able to sustain that difference without turning the other person into someone who has to live up to my fantasy.
And that also carries a weight.
To love is to take responsibility for what remains after passion. There are good parts, there are difficult parts, there are things we need to endure over time. But enduring doesn't mean suffering indefinitely or accepting something that destroys us. The weight has to be something we can carry without ceasing to exist.
It's like a nuclear power plant: producing energy also produces waste. There's no point pretending it doesn't exist. It's part of the process, and we have to find a way to deal with it.
A relationship also produces consequences, differences, frustrations, decisions, and responsibilities. Loving is also taking care of what has been created between two people.
So, to me, passion is wanting what we imagined.
Love is when what we imagined meets what actually exists... and, after the illusion disappears, there is still something that the two of us choose to preserve.