A couple of days ago, still cleaning out some of my husband’s things. After ten months, it’s mostly good memories now, but even then, plenty will have me blubbering like a baby.
I cry for emotional reasons, not physical pain. I got hit by a car 5 years ago, it shattered several bones in my foot as the worst injury. The next 6 weeks were excruciating.
I was prescribed Percocet and 800mg capsules of ibuprofen. The Percocet came with opioid addiction warnings, so I refused to take them sooner than the 4 hours of “every 4-6 hours” had elapsed. My foot was bound and the throbbing, burning, swelling pain was nonstop. I still have the expired credit cards and plastic gift cards I chewed on - funny, biting down on something really did help distract from the pain.
No tears. But when my grandmothers died, or my friend’s parents I’d known all my life, absolutely.
And works of music, film, literature, all the time. Just a few examples…
Listening to the aforementioned “Hamilton” cast recording, “It’s Quiet Uptown” had me tearing up. The first time I ever heard/saw “Madame Butterfly”, I full on sobbed uncontrollably. Multiple times. Hell I’m tearing up just hearing the aria “Un Bel Di” in my head, and knowing what it’s about. Also sobbed at NY City Opera’s production of “La Boheme” and, it must be said, Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!”
A a few other movie scenes that made me cry: the anguished cries of “Let me through! That’s my BOY! That’s my SON!” from Cedric’s father in the movie of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. The “I could have done more…” scene from “Schindler’s List”.
TV? That’s hard. Probably. Yeah - the passing of the Tenth Doctor. There, I said it. Teared up.
I’ve even cried reading books all by myself. “Charlotte’s Web” was the first time, as a child, I’ll never forget it. Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, though not “Romeo and Juliet”.