The Profound Weight

We have names, for the weak and the and they are not very complimentary.” wimp”, “wuss”, “girl”, “baby”, “hysteric” and others all convey the tendency we as humans have to admire a degree of stoicism when faced with any sort of situation. 

When people cry they are not trying to tell us how much it hurts but how much they are suffering.  We all cry as children, usually due to emotional distress or even the anticipation of a painful or scary event. But we cry for the attention, we cry to make ourselves heard. As our brains mature (the well-adjusted) cry a whole lot less and actual pain hardly ever does it. Yet it doesn't mean we don't cry, as adults we cry when for joy, when we are moved, worries , stress and just sadness. Crying is the emotional response that comes out of breaking theses emotional limits stretching the senses until they pop, and your body? It just cries and weeps tears, pools of saltwater drop out from the puckered clenched rims of your eyelids, rolling and sliding all the way down.

At best we may refer to an emotionally high-strung friend or family member we like as “sensitive” or "empathetic" but weepiness is not a trait we associate with our heroes, some of the more personal ones being Mahatma Gandhi, Aron Ralston and Marie Curie. We do value strength and our twisted notions seem to point towards that if we don't show our feelings, those which make us vulnerable, we don't seem to have them at all. While it might be a necessity to be stoic in situations like in a rock and a hard place, where Aron Ralston has to saw off his arm. There are other moments where stoicism isn't always the best route, but is certainly is the more well-travelled.

Being a tough girl myself, who has cried maybe  twice in my adolescent life, I don't like the wetness or the heavy absurd feeling that come with it. I have to be profoundly moved or sad to really cry. I don’t  like the clinical implications of crying, that the tearful human gets coddled if they can't hold themselves together and I do like the idea of stoicism, even though it is impractical. But maybe, for once, I could be wrong.