The Saddest Tears in the World
June 7th, 2009
I’m not quite sure when I learned the unspoken rule. I think it might have been the eleventh commandment: thou shalt not cry. And so I didn’t. I learned how to cry on the inside. I learned how to hold those tears back. I learned how to tilt my head away and bat my eyelashes real fast to keep ‘em from spilling over. I learned that biting my tongue made them ease up. I learned that if you knelt to tie your shoe and looked straight down at the ground, you could dump the tears and get nary a watery streak.
And I learned that if you had to cry, if you absolutely couldn’t hold those suckers in, if the dams broke loose and the tears couldn’t be corralled, then you’d best be quiet about it. No sobbing. No wailing. No shuddering breaths full of emotion. If you couldn’t stop the crying, then it’d best just be tears rolling down your cheeks. And it’d best be quick. And then it’d best be done. And that…that’s what I think is the saddest crying of all: silent tears. Big puddles of sad eyes full of pain and hurt and emotion, no sound – not a peep, and tears trailing silently down wet cheeks.
Yes, the saddest tears in the world are the tears that don’t make a single bit of sound.
Entry Filed under: history, reflections
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