TEARS

        Since I have gotten married, for some bizarre and inexplicable reason, unmitigated emotional upheavals have spawned tears, tears which seem to stream uncontrollably. I don't know if it is because of my newfound awareness with things of love and life, or if it is simply, well.....hormonal.

       In doing some research, purely out of curiosity, I discovered a little known, but somewhat comforting, quote from an unlikely source. Who would have thought that behind novels and short stories, very well-known to the common man, such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, was a wise man with a wise diagnosis of the symbolic nature of our tears?

       I, myself, have always been one who refused to allow anyone to witness my own tears, considering them to be a display of weakness. I still have that apprehension even today. But after uncovering this obscure citation from Washington Irving (author of the aforementioned stories) I am slightly more dauntless in breaking down the dam and letting the waters flow. After reading this quote, you may be too:

                    "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness,
                    but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.
                    They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."