Thank you for writing this Elizabeth. I have come to trust my tears, even on public stages. I think they spring forth when they are needed - to release tension (and not just within me, but within a crowd), and to create connection (via the permission they grant). On that stage on Friday I think our tears were a profound acknowledgement of ...everything that's going on. xx
Elizabeth, from what I’ve seen our emotions seem at least to be an honest and authentic response to what is happening around us. I’m not sure why your Chancellor of the Echequer Rachel Reeves was crying but I imagine it welled up from someplace deep in her soul. I’d take such a deep and genuine outpouring of emotion over the lies and coverups, not to mention the propaganda that people in my country (the USA) are seeing spewing from our government leaders these days. Maybe if we felt more and attempted to manipulate less, we could figure out how to get out of the hole we’re digging. Thank you Elizabeth for standing up for Ms. Reeves and good old human display of emotion.
Thanks for the impassioned clarity and you offer in this piece. It seems to me that your intense emotional response to the event contributes hugely to your clarity of thinking. Might we even argue that your emotion makes your thinking stronger, not weaker??? I just love it....
I work in health care education, lecturing physiotherapy students. I've often been asked about emotions, whether it's OK to show them in front of the people we care for. Although we must not burden the people we care for with our tears, I think that it's OK to " weep with those who weep". Such identification with those who are suffering is part of what it means to be fully human. I can feel that my propensity to cry is a weakness. But I'm glad to feel... both for my own pain and that of others. It's a contact point with reality.
Jill Bolte Taylor, brain scientist, writes “Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think.”
Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
She is a lovely person as is her new book ‘Whole Brain Living’.
As my therapist said “one of our major tasks is often to grieve, for what we didn’t have and what we might never have” It is an important part of healing.
Timely piece. I was reminded of Robert Smith's lyrics in, Boys Don't Cry. Isn't that the issue here: women are expected to cry, men, never. (Here's the Cure song, if you don't know it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSUjp-QIpY)
I so wish I could have been at that talk, and have attended that festival. I feel freer speaking about collapse in my preaching, writing, and conversations, but I still feel very lonely in my context. I can let my tears be a prayer, and my grief be a prayer, but I do long for the solace and consolation that comes in connecting with others in real time, in the same room, about it all. I'm presently training as an End of Life Doula, and grief and death are welcome in the space created in the classroom. It feels like one of the realest spaces I have right now.
Another comment ... tears can be performative, as can laughter and all the other human emotions. Context is everything. We can't just take them at face value. I really don't want weeping politicians to become a thing. If it did we would simply end up with a sentimental politics that employed emotions in order to garner support instead of factual evidence and objective research.
Jesus wept...and some of us are culturally constrained even in the saddest of circumstances. I have been enormously blessed to be in communities where that is not the case. I think tears in public should be acceptable but not compulsory. Also some of us who are neuro divergent have less ability to conform ourselves to cultural expectations.
Appreciated this piece and the deeper reality emotions can uncover and teach, especially in these interesting times as we navigate the 'public' and 'private' blurred lines and lives. Thank you so much, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth — funny you wrote this as when I saw the headlines and journalists shaming Rachel Reeves for her tearful moment, I thought immediately about our weekends mantra to “cry more”. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Thank you for writing this Elizabeth. I have come to trust my tears, even on public stages. I think they spring forth when they are needed - to release tension (and not just within me, but within a crowd), and to create connection (via the permission they grant). On that stage on Friday I think our tears were a profound acknowledgement of ...everything that's going on. xx
Elizabeth, from what I’ve seen our emotions seem at least to be an honest and authentic response to what is happening around us. I’m not sure why your Chancellor of the Echequer Rachel Reeves was crying but I imagine it welled up from someplace deep in her soul. I’d take such a deep and genuine outpouring of emotion over the lies and coverups, not to mention the propaganda that people in my country (the USA) are seeing spewing from our government leaders these days. Maybe if we felt more and attempted to manipulate less, we could figure out how to get out of the hole we’re digging. Thank you Elizabeth for standing up for Ms. Reeves and good old human display of emotion.
Thanks for the impassioned clarity and you offer in this piece. It seems to me that your intense emotional response to the event contributes hugely to your clarity of thinking. Might we even argue that your emotion makes your thinking stronger, not weaker??? I just love it....
I work in health care education, lecturing physiotherapy students. I've often been asked about emotions, whether it's OK to show them in front of the people we care for. Although we must not burden the people we care for with our tears, I think that it's OK to " weep with those who weep". Such identification with those who are suffering is part of what it means to be fully human. I can feel that my propensity to cry is a weakness. But I'm glad to feel... both for my own pain and that of others. It's a contact point with reality.
“As we become literate in the emotional weather of our souls…” I will be meditating on this ALL DAY. Thank you.
Jill Bolte Taylor, brain scientist, writes “Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think.”
Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
She is a lovely person as is her new book ‘Whole Brain Living’.
As my therapist said “one of our major tasks is often to grieve, for what we didn’t have and what we might never have” It is an important part of healing.
Thank You, Elizabeth! Your words brought to mind this poem, which I first heard performed live by the author when I was doing GCSE Eng Lit: https://youtu.be/vc0mZrC-BJU?si=wSDwK-kY0DKItDii
Timely piece. I was reminded of Robert Smith's lyrics in, Boys Don't Cry. Isn't that the issue here: women are expected to cry, men, never. (Here's the Cure song, if you don't know it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSUjp-QIpY)
I love this and I love how you lead us, Liz. Thank you!
So good Liz! Thank you for this
I so wish I could have been at that talk, and have attended that festival. I feel freer speaking about collapse in my preaching, writing, and conversations, but I still feel very lonely in my context. I can let my tears be a prayer, and my grief be a prayer, but I do long for the solace and consolation that comes in connecting with others in real time, in the same room, about it all. I'm presently training as an End of Life Doula, and grief and death are welcome in the space created in the classroom. It feels like one of the realest spaces I have right now.
Another comment ... tears can be performative, as can laughter and all the other human emotions. Context is everything. We can't just take them at face value. I really don't want weeping politicians to become a thing. If it did we would simply end up with a sentimental politics that employed emotions in order to garner support instead of factual evidence and objective research.
Jesus wept...and some of us are culturally constrained even in the saddest of circumstances. I have been enormously blessed to be in communities where that is not the case. I think tears in public should be acceptable but not compulsory. Also some of us who are neuro divergent have less ability to conform ourselves to cultural expectations.
Appreciated this piece and the deeper reality emotions can uncover and teach, especially in these interesting times as we navigate the 'public' and 'private' blurred lines and lives. Thank you so much, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth — funny you wrote this as when I saw the headlines and journalists shaming Rachel Reeves for her tearful moment, I thought immediately about our weekends mantra to “cry more”. Thanks for sharing 🙏