Tears: Weakness or Release

I was reading an article in the New York Times about the scientific explanation of saltiness versus bitterness. The results the author and scientist made after their experimentation expounded on a thought that had already occurred to me tonight. The thought was: "Tears are salty, because you are shedding the bitterness of your heart." Interestingly, the result of the article was that salt suppresses bitterness better than sugar. The conclusion I came to from this was that you can relieve bitterness better through crying than you can by pretending to be sweet when you are truly upset. This is hardly advice to run around crying or venting every emotion on a regular basis. There is a time and place for everything. Meaning there is a time to be strong, and a time to surrender, a time to speak, and a time to listen, a time to share, and a time to keep to yourself. There is a great deal to be said for being able to control one's emotions. Those who constantly give themselves over to anxiety or pain are rarely more than weak. At the same time, cultures have taught us over the decades that tears are always a sign of weakness, while this is simply not the case. Tears are sometimes an appropriate and needed release. Constantly denying that the pain exists will not resolve it. Sometimes tears can be a necessary part of letting go and moving forward. If you do not move on, a common result is that you will become miserable, bitter, or angry. Here again ties in the thought from the article: salt suppresses bitterness better than sugar. Remember, there is a time to be controlled and a time to cry. Even crying, it is relevant to note, should be controlled and not just released in a wild torrent of emotion. Throughout this subject, self-control is key. Self-control in holding one's self together and self-control in letting the tears fall.

Further food for thought on this subject: "People cry, not because they are weak, but because they've been strong for too long."