View allAll Photos Tagged crying
When I was a kid, I wondered where all the bitter people came from. The gulf to adulthood appeared absolutely impassible, and the most unpleasant and unhappy of the bunch seemed like something I could never become. But at the age of thirty-five, and the youngest of my peers in general – I've had plenty of time to watch it happen. It's more imperceptible and eroding than I ever imagined. Growing old ungracefully welcomes an unwillingness to forgive, and an obsessive belief that this will hurt anyone but yourself. Mistrust and cynicism creeps in, thinking it'll save your heart to go through life thinking everyone is out to get you. Weekends off are consumed with misery for the coming weekdays, and you get so used to hating your job that life harbours a waking dream of retiring for an endless vacation. Self-destruction gets labelled as anything but, and bad habits and inactivity are justified as deserved relief from all the hard work you've been doing.
Any of this sound familiar? The first time I realized that bitterness was entirely defined by perspective was in watching the last years of my grandmother's life. Wilma Turksma, later Skafte, had a rough childhood. She lived through World World II with her father in a Nazi work camp, her mother scrounging for food, and many nights of hiding from falling bombs in The Netherlands. But to hear her tell it, only good memories stuck as worth remembering. Life back then was a wild adventure, and the energy of youth made her see only upsides. Her last years were marked by different challenges, the loss of her husband and eyesight. That final decade was fearful and worrying, and she was very prone to complaint about the state of the world in general. It wasn't a failure of her character – it was the state of her mind.
I find that most adults are intensely adverse to admitting anxiety and depression. Rather than say: "I'm low, and that's just how I am", we'll find any kind of target to blame for our brain chemistry. Watching the news can't make us miserable, can't cause worry where none existed – but it sure helps us fixate, and seek the relief of finding excuses for our misery. Picture the good that could be done from using that time to find a single song, book, or movie to cry over, rather than days full of things to get angry at. It's as if anger isn't even considered an emotion anymore, like it's tough enough to pass off as a flexing muscle. But I don't want the strength of buried emotions, and I get no kick from being strong and silent. I'd rather be the weak, noisy type. Rather be crying out loud than yelling in your face, at least the upset is honest. Whatever gets me where I'm going, sweet as that baby boy I was born to be.
April 14, 2023
Forest Home, Nova Scotia
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Sam Perry was the guy that Oprah cried on at Obama's innauguration. Everyone was getting pictures crying on him, so I after I did it, I asked him to cry on my shoulder. Glad he put himself into it.
At the Buffalo Bills/Chicago Bears NFL game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, they handed out towels at the entrance -- the idea being that the fans should wave them around excitedly. Bills fans, though ......we know they're really crying towels. Sigh.
(shot with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app)
Sighting: 05.14.5935
Subject: BroCuta brocuta (Crying Hyena also known as the Black Hyena)
Subject BC-035 remains at large.
Very little is know of the BroCuta. It is not known if his appearance is from some type of "natural mutation" or from other human intervention.
It has been rumored that the BroCuta was once a captive of the LAW, possibly a human subjected to experimentation.
BroCuta's appearance is usually preceded by a literal "unnerving cry", an extremely obscure audible as yet unheard by human ears. Pruported to resemble an erie-like child's crying, causing nausea and confusion in humans and other complex mammals and several ornithological species.
This subject is to be considered "Extremely Dangerous".
Expeditious departure is the only currently known recommendation for dealing with said threat if encountered.
-vvvv-
What happened? Learn more about the photos contexts, and the stories they tell at blog.petsy-fink.com.