thank God for tears.

okay, you know i'm an emotional person and that i cry at some things that not even a little four-year-old girl would cry at, but today i was walking to class and was wondering why we, as humans, cry. it's really odd when you think about it..that such deep sadness produces a form of salt-water liquid that comes from our eyes (what we use to "see" things) and that they pour out of us when our emotional well-being is set off balance. i was thinking how fascinating it was that tears came from our eyes and not from our ears or nose or anywhere else. if i'm listening to a song and for some reason, the words or the way the piano keys are touched, makes me start to cry, why do the tears come from my eyes? is it so other people can see part of who we are...the frail part that so often try and guard? are we simply vulnerable little human beings running around pretending not to feel anything that would make us care or feel or move us to tears? does it come from our eyes because with our eyes we can communicate so much sadness or so much joy? i don't know. i have no idea. i'm not a psychologist or therapist or expert in emotions, but like i said...as i was walking in downtown pasadena today, with eyes red from crying in the car minutes prior to this, i began to really feel grateful for tears. i remember the scene in "IN AMERICA" that has touched me repeatedly...the scene where finally, the father cries for the first time in years for his lost, now-dead son. there's something freeing and terrifying about that moment. although i can't explain it, i guess i can feel gratitude for yet another one of God's many emotional gifts to us that we definitly don't deserve.