Happy Crying
An Olympics-related comic from my book
Dear Friend,
I’ve had so much to tell you but with many tech troubles, I haven’t been able to send an email in a while. This short email is a little dated now but I’m hoping I’ve got my systems back on track. (I’m using a new mailing system and you may need to move this to you “primary” inbox even if you’ve done that before. Otherwise, I may be relegated to spam.)
A few weeks ago, I watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympics with my 3 year-old. We only caught the part with the torches being passed along and then lighting the big hot air balloon that floated up above Paris. That was actually the only part my kid needed to see. He became obsessed with re-watching the fire catch around the balloon and rise up into the sky. I, too, was pretty taken with the magical imagery. We watched Celine Dion’s incredible performance, which brought me to tears (not such a hard feat, honestly).
My son looked at me and was clearly confused when he saw me crying. I told him, “these are happy tears, I’m not crying because I’m sad.” He has latched on to this idea and tried to adopt it. He tells me he doesn’t want to hear a song, watch a show, do an activity, because “it makes me happy cry.” I don’t really know what saying that means to him but I like that he’s processing how complicated emotions can be.
Not a long email today, just a note to say keep feeling your feelings! And let someone know how you feel… maybe with a greeting card!
