Granted I’ve been a little sensitive lately. And yes I did just admit that I watch American Idol. I hadn’t for probably a decade but recently I was on a plane with live TV and I was hooked all over again. I can’t help myself. I love a good talent show where the mom gets choked up in the wings and Ryan Seacrest gets thinner every season.
Also, nothing distracts me more from headline news than witnessing future Kelly Clarksons and Benson Boones, chasing their dreams. Truth is, even on a 5 by 11 inch screen in row 36, I got choked up within the first 15 minutes. The kid strumming his guitar singing the song he wrote for his mother - killed by his father - with the grandmother who raised him secretly standing by? I mean, who wouldn’t cry at this? Okay my husband. But who else?
Fortunately, I’m an even bigger fan of crying than I am of young people singing off key. I know crying gets a bad wrap. “No one likes a crybaby!” Anyone who played a sport before age 10 heard that at least once. In fact, when my mother was growing up, crying was the big threat. If she was laughing too much, my Grandmother would wag a finger at her, "You'll cry before the night is over!” That’s the kind of joyful atmosphere my mother was raised in. What’s great about my generational trauma is that I cry before the morning is over! I love crying! This is not a cry for help. Pun intended. It’s actually more of a pitch.
Given my love of laughter, this actually makes sense. It turns out both crying and laughing release endorphins and oxytocin to relieve stress. Of course we laugh and cry for different reasons, unless you laugh until you cry which I have definitely done, but the effect on the body and mind is very similar. Both are powerful, involuntary and cathartic! If you’re as interested in this relationship as I am - here’s a rich podcast put out by the American Psychological Association doing a deeper dive into these facts.
I’m so relieved by this epiphany I could almost cry. The last fact I uncovered about these two very human responses is that crying can also be as bonding socially as laughing! I always talk about laughter for connection - for mitigating feelings of isolation and loneliness - but crying can also have this effect on us. All this to say, in 2026, we have enough to fight about, why don’t we take fighting tears off the list? Surrender Dorothy, as the saying goes, because on the other side of these dark and stormy moments is genuine relief and feeling more connected to each other.
