A few weeks ago something so beautiful happened in my daily life that I opened up my wordpress immediately upon arriving home. I jotted in the subject line “Why Beauty Makes Us Cry,” but then was pulled away by supper and evening activities duty.
Every day since then, I’ve opened up this draft and asked myself, “Why DOES beauty make us cry?” I can’t remember for the life of me what I was thinking that day. I lost it. This is a bummer because I think if I could figure out why beauty makes us cry, I would have a best selling book career on my hands. Oh, and I would understand a whole lot more about life and art.
Can you help me? Why do you think beauty makes us cry? (It also makes us do a myriad of other things, too, but why cry?)
Is it because our souls are meant to be pure and stainless, so beautiful things provide a sharp juxtaposition against our ugly (selfish, angry, hurt, envious, proud) selves? Is it because beauty outside of us awakens those truly beautiful parts (humility, generosity, creative processes, selflessness) inside of us and the tears are what makes more beauty grow?
Watching Giselle, as performed at Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, was a tearful event for me, but this was not what made me cry the other day.
Naphtalia 
Could it be because both human experiences of relative sadness (depression), and experiencing relative happiness and beauty are possibly, in their full effect, emotional extremes dictated by that current perception and state of awareness of the human psyche. And, because these internal feelings of perception are so strong and influential our physical construct/body has a difficult time processing all the information internally and therefore “lets of some steam” by crying. There is definitely holes in that theory but that’s why it remains a hypothesis.
“Is” should be “are” in the last sentence. I should have realized that before i posted.
I cry when I experience beauty, all the time. To me it is Holy. Like you said, it is what we were meant to be and know and live in. You might do a study on what beauty means to different people. I know that for the Japanese word for beauty, kirei, means “clean”. In hebrew yophi derives from a root meaning bright.
I appreciated the topic.
IT IS BECAUSE TRULY BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS GIVE US AN EXALTED SENSE OF HAPPINESS AND WISH THEY WOULD STAY WITH US ALWAYS – THESE MOMENTS ARE EPHEMERAL – AND SOMETIME WE FALL BACK INTO A ROUTINE (WHICH MAY STILL BE BEAUTIFUL) BUT NOT AS MUCH .
Because beauty is God — our forgotten home. Poignant in separation, certain to be regained. Remembering it through beauty causes us to cry tears of joy.
6 years later, thank you for this comment- it was truly beautiful in itself.
Beauty makes us cry because it makes us feel overwhelmed and powerless against the feelings it provokes. Sometimes happy grateful tears and sometimes despair that the beauty is unattainable and fleeting leaving a sense of loss. It is a purely emotional psychological reaction and may not be felt by everyone.