Sometimes, I get tears in my eyes. Most of the time I try hard to keep them in my eyes. I’m not always successful. Sometimes, I call it getting “misty eyed.”

Sometimes, two or three tears will trickle down my face. This happened several nights ago at the movie theater when I saw the movie “Song Sung Blue.” I liked the movie, but ultimately — it was a “tear jerker.”

The show is based on a real life couple in Milwaukee who put together a tribute band doing Neil Diamond music. Life had its ups and downs for them. There was joy and there was sadness. That’s how life is for most of us.

I’ve been a Neil Diamond fan over the years. He doesn’t perform anymore. In his heyday, we saw him in concert at the Delta Center. When our kids were quite young, we saw a Neil Diamond tribute band in Laughlin, Nevada. People stared at us while we all acted like we were mega fans.

But, let’s get back to tears and crying. I mostly get teary eyed and choked up when I’m telling a sentimental story — or reading out loud an emotion evoking article — or seeing a touching movie scene — or hearing someone tell a tender story — or…well, you get the idea.

My dad had the same characteristic, as does an older brother. My dad would get teary eyed watching a situation comedy on TV — “I Love Lucy,” for example. It’s not so much out and out crying. It’s that welling up of tears in the eyes which sometimes brim over and requires wiping the cheeks.

This happens to people in church when they get at the pulpit and share feelings and stories. There’s one guy in our congregation who when he starts getting a little weepy, he always says, “You’ll have to excuse my allergies.”

Some people might say, “Pardon me, I was slicing onions earlier.” Or, “I told myself I wasn’t going to cry, but my tear ducts didn’t get the message.”

I believe I’ve gotten a little better at controlling my emotions when speaking in church. I used to have assignments that put me in front of people giving talks quite often. Probably the most embarrassing episode was when I was giving a Mother’s Day talk 20 years or more ago.

I should have known better than to try what I tried. I underestimated my ability to read out loud the children’s book “Love You Forever.” (Robert Munsch – Firefly Books, 1986)

It’s kind of a cycle of life book about a mom loving and taking care of a baby boy. The son grows up and eventually needs to take care of his mother. And the story ends with the son continuing the cycle with a new daughter. I’ve had lots of people tell me that the story brings tears.

As I read the book in church, I got to a point where I couldn’t finish. I had to have my wife come up and read the rest of it while I “got myself together.”

What I’ve gradually, with aging, been learning is that I don’t need to be ashamed of my tears. I’m learning that it’s not a “crying shame” to show emotion and tender feelings. It should not be considered a sign of weakness. After all, as what is generally considered the shortest verse in the Bible teaches, “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35 KJV)

There are times when real overflowing of emotion and weeping are expected. A good friend, and a former Sanpeter, now living out of state, called over the weekend. His news was that his wife had passed away. They’ve been struggling with her decline with Alzheimer’s disease for years.

With love, emotion, and tears (as it were) in his voice, our friend spoke of how, in the night, his wife had a recent episode of clarity. She told her husband, “I love you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He responded, “I love you too. And you don’t have to worry. I’ll always be here for you.” And he was.

It’s true that some people show their emotions and tears more than others. Relative to this concept, I coincidentally listened to an archived BYU speech this past Sunday. The title of the speech was “Racism and Other Challenges” from October 2020. The speech was given by Dallin H. Oaks, now president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

He mentioned an event that took place when he was 51 years old. It was the day after he was called as an apostle for the church. He was alone and was contemplating his calling. His 8-year-old daughter entered the room.

He looked at her and felt all the love he had for her. And then he realized that there were hundreds of thousands of little girls throughout the world that he was now responsible to try to help as an apostle of the Lord.

He then said, “Contemplating that reality, I could not contain my feelings and did something I have rarely done in my adult years. I wept.” That admission was interesting and very “human” for me to hear him say.

And, it made me glad that I, and my fellow “Zoobies” (BYU students), didn’t make him cry very often when he was the president of BYU. Thank goodness, I guess.

So, we’re all different when it comes to our emotions. I don’t think that there’s a right or wrong way to be. We just need to give everyone their space for who they are. So, now that you know I’m a “crybaby” — I don’t want any of you calling me a “crybaby.” haha — Merrill