show me your tears

i haven't been very bloghappy lately. i promise it'll come. i have, however, noticed that way too many of my blogs have been sports-related. iwannabeyourblog is by no means a sports-only blog. it's an all-purpose blog. it's about life in general. so with a no-sport rule in effect, and no topic in sight, it should be interesting, at the very least, to see where tonite's blog goes ...

we did fox-sit this week. i'm not a big fan of dog-sitting, but this was a fox and my wife told me that they were going to kill it if we didn't watch it for two days. of course, we fell in love with it. pinchy, we called it. we've always wanted to name a fox pinchy. we took it on walks and even began talking pet-talk. it was a terrific fox. cute, well-behaved, friendly. but, as all fox-sitting stories end, the day came when we had to give it up. i was sad, but oddly enough my wife was the only one of us who cried.

and this really got me thinking. why didn't i cry when pinchy left? don't i have a heart? why is it that i only cry during cheesy sports movies like "rudy" and "miracle" and "remember the titans"? i missed the fox, i really did. the question troubled me, why didn't i shed any tears? am i incapable of crying? have i become numb to the rest of world? will i ever experience true human emotion again?

i couldn't sleep that night, and i couldn't work the next day. but a funny thing happened. as my wife and i lay in front of the tv the following night watching re-runs, our first night without pinchy, my wife began to cry again. and this time it was over "real world - austin." and i just had to smile.

speaking of crying, have i ever told you about the time that my wife woke me up in the middle of the nite sobbing and wanting to talk about the plight of africa? for three hours? i'm no stranger to strange crying stories. my father-in-law, who at one time i considered to be the toughest, most intimidating man i'd ever met, openly weeps during previews for hallmark hall of fame movies. and i think the only time i ever saw my dad cry, at least until a few years ago, was when a golf tournament on tv played a payne stewart montage shortly after his death.

maybe i'll never cry again? maybe i feel no emotions other than laziness and grumpiness. but i do still miss pinchy. i really do.