Roger's Tears

Federer cries during the 2009 Australian Open trophy ceremony.







Per Wikipedia

The term crying (pronounced [ˈkraɪɪŋ] from Middle English crien or Old French crier [1]) commonly refers to the act of shedding tears as a response to an emotional state in humans. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation of the ocular structures"

I got thinking about this when the tennis media reminded us that back in January, Roger Federer was in floods of tears after losing the Australian Open final to Rafael Nadal. Boy, did he get a lot of grief from the there's-no-crying-in-sports brigade. He was also accused of stealing the spotlight from Nadal, which was, nonsense of course. But I digress.

I've always loved Roger's tears, because a) he cries whether he wins or loses, and b) his show of emotion tells us how much it means to him to compete at the highest level of a sport he loves. Plus, Roger's Melbourne Meltdown led to one of my all-time favorite tennis photos.

In some ways, crying is a strange physiological phenomenon. It is the body responding to workings of the mind and heart, territory even the most advanced scientifc research still struggles to explain.

I have no other big statement to make about tears (lol), this post is just an observation about how they're sometimes perceived by others. I'll end with the poem below about tears.

Tears, idle tears,
Stop!
Tears, soulful tears,
Start!
Tears, helpless tears,
Continue!
Tears, determined tears,
Reach!


Before I accepted
The life of aspiration,
My tears were the tears
Of real sorrow.
Now that I have accepted
The life of aspiration,
My tears are not tears of sorrow
But tears of real joy.


I like the tears
That flow from the depth
Of my helpless despair.
I love the tears
That flow from the depth
Of my dawning aspiration.
I adore the tears
That flow from the depth
Of my Liberation-sea.



By: Sri Chinmoy