CRYING

Today we would like to talk to you about the two things that you may see people around and you yourselves
do every day, everywhere, which are crying and laughing or smiling.
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In general, people laugh much more than they cry. Laughing is a mostly seen as a social gesture, for
example when people greet each other. Laughing therefore most often occurs when someone is with other
people. The feelings that go with laughing are quite short lived compared with those associated with crying,
which last much longer.
.
y friend !"# has $ust talked about laughing and now it%s my turn to talk about crying.
First of all, what is crying?
&rying or weeping, as we know, is our shedding of tears to respond to an emotional state in our daily life.
'ome people believe that only humans produce tears in response to emotional states while others think
other animals can do so. &harles (arwin, the father of )Theory of *volution+ wrote that the keepers of Indian
elephants in the London #oo told him that their elephant shed tears in sorrow like people.
But why do we cry or what are the functions of shedding tears?
, baby cries when he or she is thirsty, hungry or having a health problem such as a high fever.
,dults% crying occurs more frequently when people are alone. -e shed tears when we are in pain, sadness,
or despair &rying helps carry stressful chemicals away from the body and makes us feel better. -hen a
person experiences a stress, his or her heart rate increases and body begins to sweat. .ut as he or she
cries, his or her breathing slows and he or she become much calmer. ost people say that they feel better
after crying. ,nd why do we cry in public
/owever, a scientist called 0ren /asson, goes further by saying that a good cry is $ust a way to get attention
and acceptance from someone else. /e suggests that we can use tears to build and strengthen personal
relationships. 1or instance, you can cry show to show your submission to an attacker, or you want to have
mercy from your enemy, sympathy from your relatives, or assistance from friends. -e can recall this event2
The 3hilippines% lead negotiator "eb 'ano burst out crying when addressing the opening session of the 45
climate summit in -arsaw. /e called for urgent action to prevent a repeat of the devastating storm that hit
parts of his country a couple of weeks ago. ,nd I was moved to tears too when hearing these words of his2
What my country is going through as a result of this etreme climate e!ent is madness" #he climate
crisis is madness" We can sto$ this madness" Right here in Warsaw"%
It is interesting that people who cry a lot live longer than those who hate to cry6crying. 'cientists say that
men, who think that crying is weak, often suffer heart problems and others $ust because they do not cry
enough. -omen live 7 to 89 years longer than men because they cry much more than men do.
I have mentioned that crying is good for us and that it relieves us when we:re sad, by releasing stress and
toxins. &rying is supposed to be a sad emotion. Why do we cry when we&re ha$$y?
/ere is the answer from scientists2 the tiny hypothalamus in our brain can:t tell the difference between us
being happy or sad or being stressed. ,ll it knows is that it:s getting a strong neural signal that causes our
emotional reactions which activate the autonomic nervous system, which in turn, activate our tear ducts and
results in tear shedding. There is a fun fact that tears flow through canals that drain into the nose, which
explains why your nose gets runny when you are crying.
What 'ind of art causes you to shed tears the most?
,ccording to recent scientific research, music is one of the main artistic causes of tears. *ighty percent of
respondents say they have cried listening to music; the number tearing while listening to or reading poetry is
around <7 percent, while very few people confess to crying at an art gallery looking at a painting. It%s is
interesting enough that over =9 percent of people also can be brought to tears reading novels.
(ast )ut not least, how should we res$ond to someone&s crying?
,s we all know, the ability to respond to the tears of another is linked with empathy, and the tear is the basis
of a human morality which is based on compassion. ,s Lemony 'nicket put it )-hen someone is crying, of
course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. .ut if someone is trying to hide their tears, it may also be
noble to pretend you do not notice them.+ &rying is no laughing matter.
,nd let me end my talk by reading a poem called )*lease +on,t Cry%
.aby girl please don:t cry.
I:ll wipe away your swollen eyes.
I:ll make you smile through the night
.aby girl please don:t cry.
I:ll $ump up and down if you don:t shed more tears.
I:m gonna hold you close and squee>e real hard.
y baby girl please don:t cry.
"our smile makes me di>>y weak in the knees.
y angle girl smile for me.
I:ll do anything to see the sun shine.
y baby girl be happy.
3lease be happy.
I:ll $ump off a cliff $ust to see you smile.
ake me di>>y baby.
?ust smile at me.
That%s all I:ll ever need.