Crying makes you weak?
So, as I said in my previous post, Santa Clause is coming to town. Well, Santa’s been and gone and with it, the christmas spirit. On Christmas Eve, I could not sleep. And not because I was especially excited – on the outwards, anyway. My stomach wasn’t leaping with joy and excitement I just… couldn’t sleep. I think I maybe got… 3 or 4 hours sleep?
I could spend this blog, talking about how cheap your parents become at Christmas as you get older, but presents are a bonus, really. Christmas is more about spending time with your family and the ones you love. So I’ve decided, after a little bit of disappointment, that I’m just going to be happy with what I got.
Right now, my sister, dad and grandparents are off camping for a week – and even though Christmas is about spending time with family, I don’t do camping. I’m more of a holida kind of girl – which is great because we’re going to a bach for four days in a couple of months anyway.
One thing that always gets me about Christmas is how you’re meant to spend it with people you love. But “people you love” is just code for family. When your young, boyfrends and girlfriends don’t fit into the equation. Just family.
But enough of that. Now I want to move onto my reason for writing this blog.
So… Christmas has now been and gone, which means that my mother has received her gift from me to her. This year, I brought her the DVD “Marley and Me.” Now, I won’t give details on the movie for those who may not have seen it, but I will say this:
It is the SADDEST movie I have ever seen – apart from maybe “Titanic.” But somehow, I think “Marley and Me” beats even that. My face now holds that sticky, sort of dry feel you get after you have been crying – if you know what I mean.
Well, mother is at work and my boyfriend is on holiday and I have no contact with him, or most of my friends due to the “silly season” so I decided to watch “Marley and Me.” I don’t think I have ever cried at a movie like that, the only exception being Titanic – and I first saw Titanic when I was 12. I am now 15 and can watch the movie without crying. But somehow I don’t think I’ll train myself out of not crying at this movie.
A lot of people – men, particularly – consider crying to be weak. A guy will not allow himself to cry if he can help it. And he will immediately mock any guy who either has the balls, or the lack of self-control, to cry. It’s silly. I fail to see how the idea of crying making you weak can even compute with anyone. Well, unless you cry at EVERYTHING.
When I say “cry” I am meaning proper crying. Not “tearing” or “leaking” where you get a tear or two, three maybe. I mean actually bawling your eyes out, tears streaming down your faces, and shuddering gasps of breath as you fioght for control of your emotions, crying.
To me, crying is strength, because it is letting go of whatever anguish you may have at the time, or expressing how you are feeling toweards a certain thing. Feeling empathy. Showing that you actually have a heart that aches for not only your own pain, but others as well.
But everyone’s different, I suppose.
That being said – I would be tempted to sit every person I know in front of “Marley and Me’ and see how they react – especially the guys. Because the loss suffered in this movie isn’t something that only females can feel for, but males as well. In some cases, ESPECIALLY males.
I don’t know what it’s like for guys when they cry, but I know that for some girls, at least, they tend to have such reactions to situations and movies, because they relate what’s happening to themselves – either something similar that’s happened to them, or they think about what it would be like if the situation were happening to them.
Maybe guys don’t think like that. Maybe all they see is the tears, and the lack of theior own and think that because something so “silly” hasn’t been a tear-jerker to them, it makes them all the stronger.
All I know is “Marley and Me” is one DAMN sad movie!