When I started reading this list of questions, some of them initially struck me as naive. I don’t know why I had that initial reaction, because thought about them some more and most of them strike me as damned good questions.
25 questions
- Post author:Erich Vieth
- Post published:August 20, 2010
- Post category:Meaning of Life / Quality of Life / Risks and Dangers / Simple living
- Post comments:1 Comment
Tags: questions
Erich Vieth
Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.
One of those questions particularly struck me- whether crying is a sign of strength or weakness.
I'm one of those people who shed tears very easily. Sad chapters in books or movies, sad stories people tell me, the news, even commercials for greeting cards can make me cry. If I go to a card shop to buy a poignant birthday card, I have to pretend I have a cold and cough a few times to hide the fact that I'm wiping tears away. I've always brushed it off as a weakness, and wished I could turn those waterworks off.
But I thought about it after reading this question. Maybe that isn't a weakness, maybe it is a symbol of how I relate to others, how I take their problems on myself. I like the fact that I can be emotionally touched by someone's sorrow. I'm going to stop beating myself up about that.
Now on the other hand, I also cry when I'm angry, and I can't think of anything positive about that! It's hard to make a point when you're crying. Some years ago, I wanted to tell my boss about a big problem I was having with him, and with the job. The boss was a really nice guy, and I knew he wasn't causing a problem on purpose, he was just oblivious to what was going on. So I started the conversation by telling him that I would be crying at some point in the conversation, that he was to ignore it completely, it meant nothing except that I felt very strongly about what I was saying. Not sure how well that worked, but he did at least ignore it when I got out the tissues. Best of all, we solved the problem, which I knew we could if only I could keep it together to explain.
So what's the answer? Is crying a sign of weakness or a sign of strength? For me, it's just a sign of strong emotion.