Ever wonder where crying comes from? Do you ever feel like crying out of nowhere, perhaps because life has moved you to such a point, perhaps without viable explanation? Sometimes it's from pain, sometimes beauty... sometimes it's because you see life before you, moving swiftly along, and you want a giant delicious piece of it... but in order to get in that flowing river, you must take a bold and terrifying jump... Right now I feel like bawling, and I don't know why... Sure, I could dig around and several reasons may surface... the seemingly obvious ones being the recent deaths of my aunt and my beloved cat... but that's not why I feel like crying right now... those were yesterday's tears. Today i'm not sad, but i feel like crying out of my yearning I think... I am longing for more... It is not a feeling of being stagnant; in fact, quite the contrary... it is a more a feeling of knowing that I am moving in a positive direction and knowing that in order to embark on that journey, that I must leave behind some things of old. I am at a place of re-evaluating the priorities of my life... and while thinking about them and beginning to take new action is a start, I must do more. I just want to meditate and see what becomes of the night. I want to cry and see what becomes of myself afterward. So... why do we cry? There is an evolutionary purpose, I suspect. But what is it? The fourth definition of cry according to one of the many online dictionaries available to us is "to demand or require immediate action or remedy." This is my favorite, and in my opinion, the most accurate definition for crying... We cry to let others know that something important, potentially life changing is happening... either we are in some great deal of physical pain or danger and we need others to rush to our rescue... or our hearts are broken and we have great sorrow-- and still need others to rush to our rescue and offer up emotional support... or because we are so happy we cannot contain it and we must let others know that such a happiness is indeed possible, and a birthright to all... or lastly, because we are moved by something intangible and eternal... something that shakes us and touches us so much that we need to be able to communicate it to mankind, but words will not suffice. In theatre school, we cried all the time.. to the outside world, it may have looked like an insane asylum.. and yet most of society shuns crying: I know many people who hold their tears very well. I, personally, do not think it's a bad thing to cry. I think it is amazing to watch someone cry because when someone is crying he/ she is completely raw and human. Maybe that's why I can sit through depressing movies... I think the human condition is fascinating and every tragedy carries with it something beautiful... whether it's the way a body is neatly wrapped and cared for, or how a family comes together or how it causes someone to completely re-examine the profundity of what it is to be alive.... Perhaps crying is a form of prayer. Who knows... But I think crying, in it's motion of reaching out, is ultimately an expression of love. We cry because we love. Sometimes it is because we love something that is not near us and we cannot get it close enough. Or because we are afraid of something we love being taken away from us, be it a person or life. And when we cry out of happiness, we are in la state of love. Transcend the pretty and love. Transcend the petty and live. And cry along the way if you want/ need to... because, let's be honest... it's part of being human... and it's pretty cool being human, so let us relish in it.
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