Cry Me a River

You all know what happened recently…

For those overseas readers, here's what happened.

It is a widespread belief in the western world that crying is therapeutic and also the converse, that failure to cry is a danger to our health. Randolph Cornelius (1986) systematically analyzed the content of popular articles on weeping and found a major theme was that crying was considered an important means of releasing physiological tensions; if it wasn't released, it would find an outlet in some other way, such as affecting the person's body and possibly causing disease. 94% of articles recommended letting tears flow.

When these men cry, you’d either want to sit next to them and quietly sympathize with them, or stare at the TV screen and cry with them, whichever option is available…

Benicio del Toro

Hollywood hunks including Jude Law, Robert Downey, Jr. and Laurence Fishburne amazed artist, Sam Taylor-Wood, with their heartfelt sobs for her bizarre new exhibition, "Crying Men".

Hayden Christensen

The photographer asked the actors to produce real tears for a series of images which she hopes capture the vulnerable sides of the movie stars. She is particularly proud of pictures of the "Cold Mountain" hunk, Jude Law, weeping in a fetal position and a portrait of "Reservoir Dogs" star, Michael Madsen, betraying his hard-man image by crying hysterically.

Laurence Fishburne

Taylor-Wood explains, “Some of the men cried before I even finished loading the camera, but others found it really difficult. People can decide for themselves which they think are the authentic tears and which they think are fake. It’s about the idea of taking these big, masculine men and showing a different side." (Source)

Daniel Craig

Let’s get back to something closer to home…

THIS, I think, is still OK. Many people ended up sympathizing with the guy in the picture above.

BUT…

When I saw this picture below, I was at a loss for words... and soon realized I had tears running down my face too… Why?

Those tears running down my face... Go find out what “hysterics” means, will you? The laughing kind, I mean.

Latin: hystericus; Greek: hysterikós

Something doesn't seem quite right here. Not every crying man can gain sympathy when they cry.

It’s almost as though you’re at a crazy, noisy family reunion dinner and all in a sudden, there was nothing but absolute silence and everyone immediately stopped what they were doing halfway through because everyone saw something bizarre… followed by the sound of crickets chirping…

For a while, the world stood still… and nobody knew why…

Had they been crying because of a horrifying natural disaster that destroyed the lives of many Chinese families, I’d probably sit down and cry with them. And probably use up more than one box of PREMIER© tissue paper. I’d probably drag myself halfway across the globe to attend their weekly meetings just to cry with them too. But then, nothing of that dramatic sort took place. So…

In ancient Sparta, a city state in ancient Greece, military training was the way of life. Ancient Spartans placed the state above themselves and the state demanded soldiers to protect it. Those too weak to be soldiers were too weak to be Spartans. When a boy was born to Spartan parents, the father would bring the child to a council of elders to judge the crying baby’s worthiness of carrying a Spartan shield. A loudly screaming baby kicking with rage would be considered worthy of being a Spartan warrior…

So what’s the connection of this interesting piece of Spartan history with today’s story?

I ...... don't ...... know.