Weep?

What is it about crying that makes the human ashamed of it? Is it the fact that you are showing one side of your emotions (laughter is emotion too)? Is it the fact that homo sapiens are the only species that cry tears of emotion?

I believe something is happening when you cry, when you weep. You release part of your emotion into the tears. It is a way of relieving stress, letting go of something inside us. 

After the parting of my cousins and then my brother, whom I will not see for at least a year and a half, it was so hard not to burst into tears every time I thought about it, or listened to a song, or reflected on the awesome time we’d had. I then came home and took an ipod with me into the woods. I wanted a place to be alone and just cried for about half an hour. And it really was like releasing the emotions inside. After that I wasn’t nearly as close to crying every other second, I wasn’t about to fall over and pass out because of the intense pain and holding of breath with the realization of the situation at hand. It was letting it out, instead of holding the sadness of parting inside I let it fall, gave it to God. 

It’s kind of like a journey. After you’ve wept it is like coming out of the valley, and until you cry you are still held in the grasp of intense emotion. It doesn’t usually make me more vulnerable to crying, but less because I’ve let it out. 

And so to end this post I will quote from an amazing book that expresses such deep emotion. 

“I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.” -Gandalf

English Vintner