I saw a Mary J. Blige video the other day called No More Drama. I didn’t really enjoy the song, and thought she looked better in other videos. Something she said was quite interesting, however. The lyrics go:
No more tears (no more tears, I’m tired of cryin every night)
No more fears (no more fears, I really don’t wanna cry)
No drama (no more drama in my life)
I don’t ever wanna hurt again
I thought about the idea of never crying again. It’s something that just seems so unavoidable, yet so necessary. I wondered why anyone would never want to cry again. After all, the only way you can feel happiness is by feeling its opposite.
There is a science of crying, called lachrymology, but the resources on this are very scant. The only useful source on this science is the band Tool, which, coincidentally, is my favorite band. They say that a study has been done and a book on it published, although any attempts to find such a book have proven fruitless. Their name is short for toolshed; when they created the band, they wanted their music to be a toolshed for lachrymology.
There are chemical side-effects of crying, of course. When one cries, chemicals are released which heal the body, allowing for much stress to be relieved, not only mentally, but physically as well. It’s not this chemical process that I’m interested in, it’s the very notion of going through life without crying that I’m still trying to comprehend.
Crying seems so important, as one goes through many mental changes. So many aspects of my mentality have been changed by things that have made me cry. I have learned so much from these things. Some of my best artistic endeavors were a result of pain in some way.
Does one need to suffer to create? I believe this is true for many people, including myself, though not for everyone. After all, some joyous works of art come from artistic euphoria.
Crying can be so beautiful, and so productive, and so beneficial. Pain can be all of these things as well, something which Tool discusses in many of their songs, though not as much, I believe, in their latest album.
So why would anyone possibly want to never feel pain again, to cry again? Why would anyone want to end the world of hunger? Without hunger, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate how good that plain baguette tastes. Without pain, one would become boring, drably, something that I have feared for quite a while.
We need it to create, to truly feel. Even if one is not an artist, it takes a certain amount of pain to really enjoy life.
And for this I am thankful.