Crying! Crying? There's no crying with Shari!

It's true!  I don't cry.  I try to cry sometimes when I know it's important but I really don't cry.  I realize that most people who know me well know I don't cry.  I also realize that this opens me up for analysis by therapists and those of you reading this. 

I don't ever remember crying much throughout my entire life.  Oh I have tried, I can tell you this, but you just can't cry if you don't feel it.  That's what actors are for.  

I have kids who cry.  Some of them more than others.  I have a son that can cry on command.  I'm jealous of his abilities.  I also have one daughter who used to cry a lot as a child but has grown out of her crying stage and I'm also proud of that. 

Perhaps she cried a lot as a child because she has a twin brother Mickey who constantly bugged her.  Her twin brother Mickey (shown below) probably just punched her.  Check out the smirk on his face.

I believe that in this next picture that Mickey is truly baffled at Maggey and her crying.  (The daughter cut off in the picture on the left side now accuses me of neglecting her as a child.  She's also cut off in the picture above.   How can it be true that I neglected her?)

Ok now looking at this following picture I'm positive that Mickey did SOMETHING to disturb Maggey.

I have total sympathy for real tears (even though they are never mine).  The following is a picture of Maggey returning from the dentist.  Dental visits are a whole other blog.

There are all sorts of reasons why people cry.  Pain, sadness, frustration, grief, and some people even cry when they are happy.  (Now that is a complete mystery to me)

I am not sure why I don't cry.  I am not saying that I never cry.  I ALWAYS cry when one of my pets dies.  I always have.  I cried my eyeballs out when my dogs Roger and Tootsie passed.

Here is the problem......if I cry when my dogs die then I better cry when a person dies.   That doesn't always happen for me. I have considered taking a dropper full of lime juice and putting it in my eyes at appropriate times or even just poking my eye but that is fake and I don't do fake either. (yet another blog).   Now I'm not saying that I don't feel sad about the deceased because I do.  I just don't always cry.  My husband accused me of crying when Roger, my dog, died and not crying at his dad's funeral.  I, of course, tell him that I cried.  Truthfully, I can't be sure about that.  

My husband is a crier.  He even cries so hard his head bobs.  He mostly cries when speaking at church.  Really?  I figure he cries enough for the both of us.

At the last funeral of a friend I ran into my mom and sister after the funeral ended.  My sister asked me if I had any tissues she could use. Remarkably she AND my mom had used their entire travel packs of Keenex at one funeral!  (I have the same pack my mom gave me in elementary school.) Upon hearing my sister ask me if I had tissues, my mom instantly patted her arm and said, "Oh she won't have any tissues.  She doesn't cry.  We'll have to ask someone else." (You need to be reading this with a disgusted tone in your head)   This was hurtful but yet again I didn't cry.

I have wrongfully been accused of being the Tin Man.  That is just mean but I won't cry about it.

I have a theory as to why I don't cry.  It's genetic.  My grandma Verna doesn't cry much.  At least I haven't seen her cry much. At her sisters funeral she didn't cry.  I felt like I was finally among "my people".  

This is grandma sitting on her bench by her burial plot at the cemetery.  My grandpa is buried right there too.  I can guarantee grandma does not sit on that bench and cry.  Grandma is 97 years old and if you ask her she will always tell you that her life is "grand"!  Perhaps it's "grand" because she doesn't cry!

Grandma's son who is also my dad (thus the genetic link)  also doesn't cry much.  I could count on one hand how many times he's cried and guess what.........he's 75 and bikes and skis every day.  I may be on to something here?

I have a sister that doesn't cry either.  I also have a sister who cries and because she cries my kids call her when they want a fellow crier. They tell her their issues and they all cry together.  This is just so foreign to me.  My kids tell me their issues but they know ahead of time that I won't cry.  That's what my sister is for.

I know that there are other non-criers out there.  Perhaps they are closet criers.  Closet criers are not "my people".  

I have been hurt physically many times with broken bones and other injuries like limbs a hanging and bones crushed and I still don't cry.

The following is me after jumping off the Elementary school steps in celebration of the first day of school.  I did not hit the landing properly and broke something in my knee. 

No one would would help me get home (probably because I didn't cry) so I walked across the street and passed out on the neighbors lawn.  (And yes I did require surgery but I did not cry).

Check this injury out.......I swear my bone is showing!  I did NOT cry.  I just felt like passing out and getting sick.

Tin Man is going to go ponder on my family motto now.  This was the motto I was raised with...... "Buck up or buck off!"  Perhaps this is why I don't cry? 

After that I will practice trying to squeeze off a tear so I'm ready for the next funeral.  One thing is for sure.........I won't need tissue!