A Windowed Cry

 

 

Most people wonder what it really means to grow up. But what most people fail to realize, when asking this, is that the real question should be what does growing up really means? There is a very distinct and fundamental difference here in asking this question, using the very same words but phrased in a totally different order.

What does it really means to grow up? Your typical answers for this would be varied: experiences, failures, responsibilities, achievements, self-redefinition and so on. All are easy answers to an otherwise literal question.

What does growing up really means then? Now, the answer to this would be something! And something totally unexpected too. Because it depends on what you believe in.

And what I truly believe in? Is that we never really grow up. It is something I’ve seen it with my own eyes. In friends, with the people you work with, people you tolerate, families and even strangers.

What I really see is that we all just learn how to act better as we age. And that is what growing up really means, I think – we become better at acting out our feelings to the people we care about, and the people we tolerate. Yes, we all yearn to have at least that someone in life whom we can share everything and anything with, and we do it, almost completely. But here is the truth: we never really reveal ourselves fully even to our loved ones.

And that’s ok. It’s not selfish. It’s not strange. It’s not even hypocritical. It’s just the way we are; it’s in our nature to sometimes keep even the smallest of mystery to ourselves. We are not hiding. We are….searching.

That is why a child’s words are the purest in form and definition. That is why many of us often find the simplest and truest of wisdom in a child’s utterances. It is not that they are innocent words; they are just unscripted words – unbiased by the mental filters we grown-ups have been accustomed to put on over the years.

It is why the strongest bond with our children is made during their early years, not later. It is in those years where they reveal the most to us. They laugh the hardest and cry the loudest. And these two physical emotions are the best measure to a person’s true self.

A laugh may tell us who someone is when they are around others, but a cry is what really reveals them. That is why we do our crying in private.

Everyone wears a mask and every so often, each of us stand in front of a mirror and look at ourselves. We stare at us. Some look past themselves. Others look into themselves. And then there are those who look at their own superficial bodies and faces for beauty to them are skin-deep. But true beauty goes deeper. Only tears reveal a person’s true self. That is why our eyes are the only window into our souls. That is why we never cry in front of mirrors.

Each of us believe that we share our innermost-self to the people closest to us, when we cry privately in their presence, but little do most of us see it – we still pretend at a subconsciously emotional level because we still try to keep something for ourselves during this most intimate moment.

We try to open up when we shed a tear

Hoping others will see our age without fear

But what the mirrors fail to try

Is to reveal this act that is called a windowed cry