What'd you guys all do a couple of Sunday's back? Say..February 1st or so? There was a game on I think... Ok, it was Super Bowl Sunday and for most guys the Super Bowl is the pinnacle of the sports calender. If you're like me you were surrounded with friends, throwing back a few beers and eating a smorgasbord of junk food, ready to watch 22 physical juggernauts smash head first into each other for 60 solid minutes. A scene which would land your average guys like us crumpled in the fetal position in tears.
Good thing most of us didn't have to worry about that. And yet, during one of the most exciting Super Bowls I've ever seen, I found myself on more than one occasion in tears. And no, not tears of joy because I happen to be a Patriots fan (I'm not, but I will say it was a pretty damn fantastic finish) but I'm sure like a lot of you, I was in tears because of the damn commercials.
Here's the thing: I love the commercials. For a lot people who don't actually like football, the food, friends and commercials are the main draw for watching. And trust me, advertisers apparently know it. But I have to say that I found it ironic that across the country millions of self described "macho men" tuned into to watch our modern day equivalent of Gladiators battling it out in the Colosseum and ended up over the course of 3 hrs, on the verge of lip quivering tears on several times.
And you know what? It's OK.
Whether it was the Nationwide commercial with the little boy telling us how he'd never learn to ride a bike, fly or get married because he died from an accident (the camera dramatically pans from boy to overflowing bathtub implying he died from and accidental drowning) or the "Life is Better with Dad" Nissan commercial where Dad finally shows up after a career as a Formula One racer, it seemed at every turn advertisers were very literally bringing a nation of men to tears.
This isn't the only place we see this stuff either. When was the last time you saw a Disney movie? Anymore, there are one or two of these moments in EVERY DAMN MOVIE (see Tangled, Brave or the Croods for evidence...and remember I warned you).
So what's the deal? And I'm not asking why do commercial makers, advertisers and movie makers do it...It's to sell us stuff. I'm asking why do we seem to always be so susceptible to the mushy stuff in places and times where we have no business crying.
The answer is to invest us. And that's why it's OK to cry too. Because we're invested and it's important.
I wasn't brought up to hold my emotions in. My dad didn't cry very often either but he seemed to hold the key, almost if earned by right of manhood, to knowing when it WAS OK to cry. I like to think I've learned a few things from him. It's okay to cry because we spend our time, energy, emotions and sometimes hard earned cash in people and endeavors and when they succeed or fail, we are often brought to the brink of tears. We cry when we lose friends or loved ones, when our kids succeed and when they fall, when people get married or when we overcome some great personal obstacle. That's when we cry. That's when it's OK to cry. It's part of living, I mean really living, that brings us to tears because we so desperately care about a thing or relate to an experience. And listen, it takes courage to invest because there's a lot at stake. Whether we (or our loved ones) lose or win, to really do something means the chance that's it going to end in tears.
In Jim Valvano's last speech at the ESPY's in 1993 he said "If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day."
I think for most of us, we just hope that the good crying happens a bunch more than the bad. So go ahead, tear up...in fact, let it go buddy.
From Tulsa, OK. Dad and weekend warrior. Is not an author or writer, started blogging while layed up from surgery, because he had nothing better to do.