Tears is a wonderful thing

Tears is there to wash away the microorganisms that might settle onto your cornea. It's a sign of natural protective mechanisms against any foreign invasion. Tears in other instances are there as a sign of sorrow or sadness. I have been reading many psychoanalytic books, with eager psychologists trying to bring light to different perspective into people in transition, people that are suffering, or people facing whatever problems they are facing. There is one common theme in all of those books I read by David Brooks, M. Scott Peck, and Viktor Frankl. They all welcome tears, suffering, and changes in life. They see it as a necessary tool for us to grow spiritually into a deeper understanding of ourselves.

I, at many instances, try my best to hold the tears from coming out. You will laugh at the things I do: digging nails into my hands, pinching myself, or start thinking about extremely silly or embarrassing things I have done in the past. Most of times they don't work. Doing so would temporarily delay my tears, but at the end the tears always wins. Always.

Tears is a representation of suffering. Suffering is a representation of confrontation. Confrontation is a representation of maturation. Maturation is a representation of growth. Growth is a representation of experience. With those experience, we can see world from a different perspective. 

Another reason why people often hold back the tears, other than the fear of suffering and pain, is fear of judgement from others. The industrial revolution has changed people into believing tears as a sign of weakness, where indeed tears is a sign of strength. Tears show the confidence and bravery of an individual to show his or her weakness to others. Once an individual is willing to show it, the individual is willing to take the risks of all that follows afterwards. It indicates a precious level of trust towards others. It also indicates the belief in the self that is strong enough to tolerate all consequences of exposing his or her own weaknesses. 

To me, that is the quality of any leader of any organization should have, and yet sadly, most leaders in this world are deep in fear of the destruction of career, shame, and judgement. And yet, not many people, are willing to live completely guilt free, and are willing to remain the state of fear for a long long time. Many times, audiences can be forgiving and tolerant. We all understand that no one is perfect, because people who indeed pursue perfection is a sign of imperfection in itself.