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.