WHY I CRY

By Aidan Gasse

Too often we’re told to disregard those tears that come when we’re sad or lonely. There isn’t anyone to give us a hug like a mother hugs her child to keep her from crying too much. The melancholy that creeps up on us when we least expect it is real. We cry sometimes when we need help, when we need a push in the right direction. But does crying influence the way we react to our problems or not?

I don’t just cry because something hurts or I got my period. I was with my little niece once and going down the stairs I almost fell. While avoiding the fall I grabbed on to the rail but hit my knee. Oh it hurts and I cried. The pain was unbearable. I was alone with the toddler and no one could hear us. Well the baby was with me and started crying too because there was a noise and she heard it. She noticed I opened my mouth but for a few seconds nothing came out. Then I screamed holding my knee like It was on fire or I had fallen in some hot water. Oh my God I needed to cry. The toddler was traumatized. I thought, she won’t remember this, she’s barely two. It took a while for the pain to dissipate. I wiped her tears and mine then we went about our business like nothing happened. But I know, and I have the mark to prove it.

I cry because crying makes me stronger. When I hear good lyrics in a song. When I’m alone at night in bed I cry. I do it, if I am in church and I think about God too much. If I’m having a bad day or bad things are happening to good people. You send your kid to school for instance, there is a shooting in class and he doesn’t come back. You were planning a birthday party and now it’s a funeral. How were you suppose to know! What a horror. All you do is keep sending the kid to school. What happens happened. You can’t home school your kids. You have to go to work and earn a living. You cry because inside you are devastated.

I cry when there is a pandemic and I think the world is coming apart. Any virus could be air born. We carry masks in our pocket, in our the purse, in the car do we need them? do we wear them? Or do we let the virus take control of us, like a bird circling in the sky that plucks us away when it needs. We’re just prey and there is nothing we can do about it. There is so much hurt in the world. There is war, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, gang violence in our communities. What is this world becoming?

It’s good to cry! Male or female, young or old. You may not feel its’ good for you but your body knows. It’s a release like no other. Even if the problem is not gonna go away. Whenever I feel that my body needs it I will lock myself in my room and I’m gonna have me a good cry.