Right now, in fact, while watching Pearl Jam’s “Sirens” on TV. I’m a 65 year old who discovered a year ago that I am high functioning autistic and that I essentially trashed my life, and the life of my fucking wonderful wife, thanks to this.
It’s a perpetual balancing act - between being pissed off at what I’ve lost and being thankful for the extent to which it has not impacted me.
Right now I’m blubbering like a baby.
My weepiness can also be situational. How I react to certain things can depend. A prime example is George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today”; sometimes I can listen to it with no reaction, and sometimes it will set me off with anything from being a little leaky to full-out bawling. Earlier this morning I was listening to "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook and when she started singing “This Ole House” I had to stop and wipe my eyes.
No joke. I’m teary now, as I’m watching the SNL skit with Harris. I glanced over to my other monitor and saw this thread. Weird. First Non-White, female president, with so much on the line. She still wouldn’t be my first pick, but the fact that she’s handling this election with such strength is awesome. She should be proud of herself.
I had tears running down my face yesterday. I was reading the story of a woman who had been a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre when she was six years old. She cast her vote for Harris the other day. She will turn 110 a week from today, Lord willing.
My wife and I cried like babies about a month ago, we were on the way to the vet for our cat Trixie. We found her stumbling around and barely able to walk. We thought we might have to put her down, she is 16 years old and diabetic. Turned out she had very low blood sugar. The vet gave her some sugar water and told us to cut down on the insulin. She has been fine since.
Dad died a couple of years ago. He always felt that John Philip Sousa was a musical genius.
Yesterday when my wife and I were driving home from an errand, my MP3 player launched into The Stars & Stripes Forever. My wife and I cried. We miss him (my dad mostly, Sousa not so much).
Hugs to you as well.
The last time I can remember would be, of all things, the last time the movie Shadowlands was on TV. If it’s on TV I’ll watch it, and it always make me cry. Don’t want to spoiler it for anyone planning to watch it, so:
Ridiculously, the thing that always gets me is the way that the death of his wife, Joy, tests C S Lewis’ religious faith. I’m about as non-religious as you can get, but it breaks me up every time.
I should add that it has been (thankfully) quite a long time since anyone close to us died or had something horrible happen to them. I’m not superstitious, but I’m knocking on wood as I type that. (Also, we haven’t had a dog for a very long time.)
j
I am an orphan. My parents and my siblings are all gone. In some threads I talk about my “brother” the wine snob and the "brothers " I fish with every fall, bit these men are just life long friends. I love these guys like brothers but sometimes the melancholy hits me hard.
On occasion, I shut myself in my den, drink whiskey and listen to sad country songs just for the needed catharsis. That is how I spent last Friday evening…
I’ve also spent some nights doing exactly this (only replace whiskey with red wine and weed for me) . And it was good. Gram Parsons is my go to artist for nights like this.
A month ago today when I had my dog put down.
I’ve spent the past month walking around in a stoic haze.
I hope to be crying for joy some time this week.
You described me perfectly, Tamerlane. Though it is very rare for me to cry with grief, I will tear up readily over the corniest shlock. It’s embarrassing.
I did break down (a little) and cry about a month ago. My mother died several years back, and my father just a year ago, and I’ve made several trips back East to sort through their possessions and try to empty out the house.
The increasingly bare house seemed so forlorn that it brought the extent of the loss home to me: my parents gone, all the uncles and aunts gone, the cousins I used to be close to, now increasingly distant as they become too old to travel easily. And now we’re losing even the place where we grew up.
Heck, maybe I’m really just weeping over my lost youth. Either way, the passage of time can really suck, ya know?
Delbert McClinton is mine…
They are your brothers now. We make family when we lose ours. At least that is how I like to think of it.
Late Tuesday night, frustration and grief.
You’re far from alone
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve always somehow known his name, but never got around to check him out. I just read up a bit about him and he should be right up my alley, and I’m now listening to his “Best Of” album.
I put off replying to this until I had surgery earlier today - recurrence of bladder cancer, but it’s all good, see In Which Trep Goes To Hospital. A Lot. (Slight Return). The idea of weeping for needed catharsis was beautifully expressed, and I’m pretty sure I did this a little while after my first cancer surgery nearly five years ago. Sometimes it is simply the best thing you can do. Oh, and I’m whisky and Parsons. And That James Carr Song. But I don’t think I need it at the moment.
j
As sung by Gram and the Flying Burrito Brothers 
? And I’m glad you’re good and hope that you stay well.
Of course.
j