My son was crying the other day and I told him it was ok to cry, and he replied that I never cry...how wrong he is. Its funny after my father died (1993) I don't think I cried until until my son was in the hospital with complications after birth, which would mean I basically didn't cry for 9 years. I didn't cry much after that incident with my son either, not for years. I have made up for it over the last year or two.
From Wikipedia "According to a study of over 300 adults, on average men cry once every month, and women cry at least five times per month", so it looks like people cry a lot more than I use to! From the same article "Due to the chemical composition of emotional tears, some scientists have hypothesized that a function of crying is to rid the body of stress hormones. " I totally agree with this, crying tends to make me feel better, while its certainly not the be all ended, it does help take the edge off of emotions for me.
I was kind of happy that my son hadn't been aware of me crying, not that I'm ashamed of it, or because I think it shows a lack of manliness, but more because it shows he hasn't been too aware of the stress between my wife and myself.
My wife and son left today for Israel, and he gave me his stuffed wolf "Arfy" to take care of. I've had this stuffed wolf by my side since he left...I've shed a few tears since then as well...
2 comments:
Good luck whilst your son is away. I'll try to catch you online sometime.
I think it's perfectly normal to cry. I cry ALL the time, even at those stupid Hallmark commercials sometimes. And at least a couple times a week...I just hate keeping it all in. Normally, I don't cry in front of people, but when I'm alone..the tears come tumblin' down. And I agree with the stress hormone release theory...
I think it takes a very strong man to admit that he cries...
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