I don’t cry a lot. Rather than getting into the psychology of why that might be, let’s just take it as a fact and move on to the related fact that when a piece of culture—a book, a movie, a song—does make me cry, it tends to be memorable. Personal stuff is its own thing, of course, but let’s talk crying and culture. For some of you, the list may be endless—tell us about it. Is there a common theme to your tears, or is it more about the moment? Do you try to hide your tears or do you let them flow unashamed?
I’m on the hiding-my-tears side, but here’s my confessional:
A comic: I must have read this Breaking Cat News comic about shelter cats a dozen times now, and I tear up every time. Every time. I only open the link when I’m pretty sure the tears will be more about the sweetness of the comic than the thought of all the real-life shelter cats out there.
A movie: There are two scenes in the movie Pride (which I wrote about last winter) that make me cry every time, though they are not the only scenes in the movie that make me cry sometimes. The first is this one, and the second is the final scene. If you’ve seen both Pride and Milk, you may see a theme when I say that the end of the latter also makes me cry.
A couple songs: You may also see a theme between the first Pride scene I cited and the inclusion of the labor song “Bread and Roses” on my list. We had a friend sing “Bread and Roses” at our wedding and it may have been my favorite moment in the ceremony. There’s also a song that tears my heart out because of a memory associated with it. The song is “Gabriel’s Trumpet” as sung by one of my longtime favorite singers and nearly as longtime friends, Tim Eriksen, and the moment is in that video. Because, you see, there was someone who was there that day who wasn’t with us much longer, and I so miss her smile and her wit.
A book: Do you know, I’m sure there are others, but the most memorable crying-from-a-book incident I’ve had as an adult was Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass. Intellectually I’m aware it’s not the strongest book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, but I finished it and I sat on my bed and wept for close to an hour. I remember it getting dark as I sat there unable to break myself out of the book’s spell.
So, how about you?