Things that get you misty

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

There are people who get emotional at everything, breaking down when anything happens to any living creature; weeping at weddings, retirement dinners, and bachelor parties; and sobbing at every cute and cuddly chick flick in creation.

Then there are people who are rocks, stoic and unyielding. Give them a picture of a puppy being swatted with a Saturday Evening Post and their countenance remains unchanged.

I suspect most of us fall neatly into the middle, that we break down only on rare occasions.

Books, movies, music, and television all do this to us.

We weep for various reasons. Sometimes it’s because what we’re reading, watching, or hearing is so exquisitely well done, so mesmerizing, so beautiful, that we’re moved to tears.

Sometimes it’s the content of the song, movie, book, or show to which we can relate; something in the lyrics or plot that speaks to us as if it were speaking only to us. These lyrics can remind us of where we were and how far we’ve come. They can remind of us our triumphs, our loves lost and gained, our defeats.

So what speaks to you, personally, so strongly that diminutive droplets of saline liquid trickle down our cheeks?

Okay, here’s mine. I have more, but here’s one to grow on.

There’s a Robert Hunter song, performed by the Grateful Dead, called “Brokedown Palace.” One of the lines in the song is:

“Mama, mama, many worlds I’ve come since I first left home.”

I liked the lyric so much that when I gave my mom her Mother’s Day card this weekend, I quoted it.

2

Dan I think I fall into your " breaking down when anything happens to any living creature" category! Puppies, kitties, sweet lil beebees, you name it!

But speaking of Mother’s Day, my daughter’s First Holy Communion was last weekend and there I was, bawling in the pew. Especially right after she received, she hugged me and said, “that was wonderful!” Of course like most mothers, the achievements of my children bring the waterworks on pretty quickly.

The only other time I really recall crying publicly was also at Mass – the weekend following September 11. We sang America the Beautiful. I’m very stone-faced usually when it comes to politics - no knee-jerk patriotism for me. The line that got me was “America, America, God mend thine every flaw.”

3

“God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood…esp when he gets to the part where it goes “Across the plains of Texas…from New York down to Houston”.
“Fly Me Up to Where You Are”–by Josh Groban
“One More Day with You”–Little Texas…it always reminds me of my uncle who passed away about 2 years ago.
“Butterfly Kisses” by Bob Carslyle…it makes me wish I HAD a father so I could’ve done all those cute things they describe in the song. My real dad was kinda a deadbeat and not part of my life and my stepdad was a workaholic so he always missed my birthdays,etc.
“Remember the Magic(25th Anniversary Theme)”–Brian McKnight…this song was created for Disney for WDW’s 25th Anniversary a long time ago and every time I hear it I tear up, thinking about all those fond memories I have of going to WDW.

IDBB

4

I use to to be one of those Rock people; I wouldn’t cry for anything. But now I’ve moved firmly into the “emotional at everything” column… it’s gotta be the age. I get misty at literally everything sad from songs to movies.

Now my only question is what happens when I hit 30?

5

I’ve never heard of this, and am greatly intrigued. Do you know of a place where I could hear a snippet or find the lyrics? I’ll google if you help…

Ferry

6

The National Anthem.

Amazing Grace when played on bagpipes at a funeral.

Injured kids in my ambulance. After the run.

7

Actually, dantheman, several Grateful Dead songs (mostly on American Beauty) move me that much. I don’t recall actually breaking down and crying over them, but Box of Rain, Ripple, and Brokedown Palace move me about that much. So does Uncle John’s Band - I’ve got this great acoustic version from February of 1970, not much else you can do with it but mist up.

What else?
I’m vulnerable to dogs and goodbyes. I’m not a cryer, but if anybody remembers the Robin Williams film What Dreams May Come, the only bit that made me cry was where he meets his dog. Him dying, his wife, kids? I didn’t care. But everybody who saw that movie knew it’d get them at some point, and for me it was the dog. And as I say, I suck at sentimental goodbyes.

8

“Box of rain” is a great choice, because the backstory is that Phil Lesh wrote the music as a tribute to his dad.

And on that note, there’s a great line from a Dylan tune:

"Someday, everything’s gonna be different
When I paint my masterpiece.

…

Cause someday, life’ll be sweet like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece."

Always reminds me of the days when I struggled to hold my head up.

9

I just read Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Let me tell you, at the end, when Capt. Wentworth slips the letter to Anne, and it says that he loves her and has always loved her, and has never loved another, and has been pining after her for 8.5 years…

Well now - I was on the damn bus, crying like a baby.

That doesn’t usually happen to me. :slight_smile: Good book.

10

Driving home, I listened to a piece on NPR-All Things Considered, regarding services at the Law Enforcement Officer Memorial. Live interviews with the Mother of an Officer who was killed in the line of duty, and that of the partner of a fallen Officer. I cried for a fellow public servant.

Not a Police Officer, I’m a Firefighter, and I’ve buried my brothers who have fallen in the line of duty. A visit to Emmittsburg, MD cannot be accomplished by me with dry eyes, as I knew the men and women whose names are shown in bronze.

I was invited to the Fire Service by the son of a Fallen Firefighter.

Something which I cannot quantify for those outsidepublic service, and in saying mean no disrespect for them, is that we of uniform grieve for those we’ve buried, and those for whom the pipes will play.

11

I sobbed the whole way through the last chapter of George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. What happens to Dany is just so sad, and yet triumphant, and so well-written.

I cry at Schindler’s List, everytime.

OZ can turn me into an emotional wreck. I wailed like an old woman when Cyril died, when Keller took the fall for Beecher, when Schillinger (temporarily) forgave Beecher for the death of his sons.

Oddly enough, some of the things that affect you the most powerfully don’t bring on tears. When my daddy died, I went upstairs and locked myself in my room for several hours. I didn’t weep and I didn’t scream. I just sat in there and read King Lear and those lines:

No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all?

Over and over again.

.:Nichol:.

12

Yeah, it was written for his dying father. Here’s a bit from
David Dodd’s Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, which is a great site.

13

I cry at everything - all the time. Latest, my husband and I, discussing the West Wing season finale (we watched it seperately) and my telling him how Abby burst into the breifing room… And the look on her face … and how Stockard Channing can say more with a look that most actresses today but is always overlooked…

Scuse me - I’m all verklempt… Talk amongst yourselves…

14

Oh, I forgot another song, while we’re cataloguing this. :wink:
Tori Amos’s cover of Time (by Tom Waits). I first heard her do this song on Letterman’s show around September 14, 2001. I find her best stuff very powerful, and something about that performance has stayed with me since. I’ve heard the song all of twice since then, but that power is still there.

15

Yup, I have Hunter’s book of lyrics, called (coincidentally enough) “Box of Rain.”

There’s a line in there, too, that’s a special crowd pleaser:

“A box of rain will ease the pain and love will see you through.”

When typed, these words look trite, but when sung - especially by Lesh - they’re sincere, almost overwhelmingly so.

16

First a litttle background…
I had a cousin who died at a year old in 1990, my grandmother passed away in 1991.

A few years back my mother had to put her dog to sleep. She stood at the table as the vet gave Maggie the shot. Mom held her and said, “When you get there, i want you to go make sure Grandma is okay. Then go find Chris, because that little boy needs a good dog to play with.”

I tell that story whenever I get the chance. It makes me cry every time, and I can usually tear up any other women in the room.

17

I have another one. It’s “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues.

Especially this sequence:

Gets me every time.

18

Okay, now I’m crying!

19

I tear up at anything about animals or kids. I was getting my nails done the other day, the news was on, and there was a story about how this 4 lb chihuahua had saved her family from a fire, but the family’s two cats had died in the fire - I was sitting there with tears streaming down my face, just crying for these cats, and crying for these people’s dog because they said the dog was really upset that she couldn’t save the cats, too.

Ava

20

From the musical 1776, when John and Abigail Adams are singing to each other “Till then, I am, as I ever was, and ever shall be yours…” as well as the song “Momma, Look Sharp” - I can never get through these dry-eyed.

From my personal life, I read a poem my daughter wrote in middle school. It was her plea to be accepted for who she is, not for how she looked or dressed. I thought it was an amazing expression of a young teen’s struggle with fitting in and making friends. The poem was published in an anthology of student poetry. It always gets me all teary.