Reflections for 3/5/11

"But more than anything, I think, we wept for us, and so it ever is with tears. Whatever be their outward cause, within the chancel of the heart it's we ourselves for whom they finally fall."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p.63)

I'll do something that's hard for "real men" to do, I actually have cried.  I don't cry at the drop of a hat, but I have shed some tears as an adult.  I don't cry much at funerals anymore but I can get choked up watching others go through their grieving.  I suppose because I have to preside at a funeral, I feel I need to keep it somewhat together.  But I know that a funeral even for someone I didn't really know brings back funerals of my grandparents and my mentor in the priesthood.

I certainly shed some tears at movies. Again because they evoke some sort of deep connection to real events or perhaps even subconscious worries.

I also have shed tears of joy. Watching the birth of my children, when ever something goes well for them. My son's first win this season was one of those moments.

I take some consolation in knowing that it is okay to cry, because the Bible tells me that "Jesus wept."  I sometimes wonder if one of the causes of so much of our stress, especially my fellow males, is this non-sense that men don't cry.

Blessings,
Ed