by MAB (bio)
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| Crying Men by David Prior |
I cry about once every four years. I guess if I kept a journal like a good Mormon I would be able to recount these important events with better accuracy. Off the top of my head, here are the events that made me cry in the past twenty years:
- A passage in a book about viruses (My wife loves to tease me about this even though it happened before we were married. The passage was about the size of viruses compared to super clusters. I was overcome with a sense of scale, my insignificance in the universe and the complexity of life.)
- My first child's birth
- My grandmother's funeral
- My aunt's funeral
- And most recently, a movie (juicy details below)
The subject of crying has been on my mind recently because I had a good solid sob about one month ago and I just came across an interesting experiment that is documented in the great video below.
But first, here's my cry story. I was on a work-related, twelve-hour, night-time flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong. Anxious for the work ahead, I couldn't sleep so I decided to watch an in-flight movie. The first movie that peaked my interest was Moonrise Kingdom
. I watched the movie, and it was great, but no, Moonrise Kingdom was not the movie that made me cry.Not feeling completely exhausted yet, I looked for another movie and this time found Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
. The movie didn't just make me cry, I was practically sobbing. I think the guy next to me, as well as his daughter, got a little worried and uncomfortable. I blame it on the movie's plot and subject of course, but also on the fact that I was tired and leaving my family for two weeks. I think the plot was that much more difficult for me because it featured 9-11 extensively and I've been outside the U.S. for over a year. So, on top of missing my family, I felt homesick and disloyal to my compatriots.Taking things a bit lighter, here's a movie about four guys who compete to cry. It has a surprise ending. Then don't forget to answer my questions at the bottom of the post.
The Crying Competition (part 1) from Brent Hoff on Vimeo.
I fessed up to my recent sob ... what caused yours? Men, do you think (as implied in the movie above) that we are vastly inferior to women in our ability to connect to our sensitive side?
