EMOTIONS

There are times in my life when tears flow and I can do nothing about it and it is embarrassing. I don’t want anyone to see the tears because I think that at that moment in time I should be in control of my emotions. After all self-control is a must if we are to live any semblance of a balanced life. We can’t go around crying for almost no reason at all nor can we fly off the handle at the least bit of indiscretion. We have to be able to control our emotions.

Yet, on the other hand we cannot be so stoic that nothing ever moves us to tears, on the one hand, or anger, on the other. God created us to have emotions, to feel pain and grief and joy and sorrow and elations and dejection and whatever else it is that causes our hair to stand on end or tears to flow. Being emotional is part of being human. It simply goes with the territory and we need to deal with it even when we are embarrassed by it.

I was reminded of that a while back other day when I watched two videos friends sent. The first was of a flash mob at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the second was of a magical piano at Chicago’s Union Station. Unexplained tears started to well up when a group of student musicians and singers surprised those who had come to the museum for reasons of their own by singing a Christmas hymn. I’m still trying to figure out how to explain the tears.

On the other hand, I do understand why I smiled and laughed watching the video of the magic piano. The piano automatically played music that fit the person standing by or sitting on the piano bench: accompanying a little girl playing “Chopsticks”, playing fast music as people rushed by to catch the next train, blaring loud music to accompany a man on his cell phone who was obviously upset about something who finally turned to the piano and told it to just shut up.

I well up with pride – and tears – when the National Anthem is played when someone from the USA stands up on the stands and receives his or her gold medal at the Olympics. Yet I don’t feel the same way at a baseball game when the anthem is sung or played. Why this is so I have no idea. It only goes to prove to me, at least, that I cannot control what kind of emotional response I will have to any given situation or if  I will have any emotional response at all.

It is also a reminder that there are times when I have to keep my emotions in check and there are times when I have to let them go. If it means that I have to be strong in order to deal with a situation that will be difficult and emotional, so be it. If it means that I will look like a sap to those who see me crying, so be it. Then, when I step back and reflect on what has passed and how I reacted, can I decide if I need to apologize or be thankful.

We are all emotional beings. For that we need not apologize but simply be thankful. What a dull and uncaring world we would live in if it were not for our emotions. They keep us alive. They keep us focused. They remind us of what is good, what is bad, what is important and what is not. They keep us human.