The Land of Tears

Also see: http://www.goomusic.com.hk/blog/?p=1145

The general message in this song is saying that it's okay to cry.  As we grow up, somewhere along the way we learn that we should be strong and that we shouldn't cry.  But why?  It's a natural, human emotion.  It's a way of release.  Perhaps, a much needed one.

I think I've had too much "experience" with tears in recent years.  Overall, maybe I cry more easily than before, but not so "willingly".

Perhaps as you live life and experience more things, you learn to appreciate and treasure what you have/had.  You become more grateful and more easily touched by the good things around you.  But at the same time, you also more easily feel the sadness and pain of the bad things happening around you, even when there's no direct connection.  In this sense, I definitely cry more.

On the other hand, over time, I've cried less over the personal things that cause me sorrow and pain.  I don't think my emotions have changed, but there comes a point when you've been telling yourself so long to fight it that you no longer know how to cry over it.  There comes a point when you become numb to it all and there are just no more tears.  What remains is the dull heaviness inside.

The opening of the song is the most touching part.  That is, after you figure out what it's talking about.....

我能感覺 你的身體 藏了一座雪山
你不允許 傷心融化了 難堪
請你伸手感覺 我的心裡 留了一片海岸
擁抱你的眼淚 釋放內心的不安

This is the part that makes the connection to the blog post.  What this part of the song and the blog post talk about are what touches me most.

Touch.

What can you know about a person by touching them, if anything?  Can we communicate through a simple touch?

In the song and blog post, hocc talks about being able to "read" someone simply by touching them.  It talks about being able to feel someone's sorrow and being able to feel someone's tears.

This is also something that I've experienced that made a huge impression on me.

Like any other time, we hugged.  Like all other times, it was a long long hug, if you could even call it that.  When we finally did let go, she looked me in the eyes and asked me if something was wrong.  I was a little shocked.  How did she know?  Through our simple embrace, she had felt that I was sad that day.

Perhaps it was really just the subtle changes in body language that sent the message, but more often than not, I always felt that there was some sort of energy flow when we touched.  Somehow, without words, through our embraces, we communicated with each other and "said" some of those unsaid things.  Perhaps, over time, we had learned to truly "listen" to each other.

I cannot wrap my head around it and it may sound a little crazy, but I truly believe there was something there.

Through the ups and downs, I cried in front of her, in her arms, on her shoulder, countless times.  There were tears of joy, but unfortunately even more tears of sorrow.  I never counted, but for sure nobody else has ever seen me that way.

I've seen her cry, perhaps a little less.  She always seemed to be stronger than me, but in many ways I could feel that she was tired and I could feel that she was hurting.  Perhaps, at the time, and maybe even now, I never really knew all the reasons.

Every time I saw her cry, I could not hold back my own tears.  Seeing someone you love cry and not being able to do anything, is a very unbearable feeling.

"It's such a secret place, the land of tears."
- Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

As someone wrote in the comments of the youtube video......

會哭不是因為我們不堅強，而是因為堅強得太久了。

That...is precisely...眼淚教我的事.