Crying is good for the most part, and I think that entire 'boys don't cry' thing has been overstated, and at the very least has been replaced by the far more sensible "there is no crying in baseball," which is a cross-gender edict. So that whole 'set and setting' thing comes into play. I've spent a lot of time in a place where we directly and deliberately play on people's emotions. And the people who are good at it, are very good at it. I dare you to watch
Beaches and not cry at the end - its pretty much designed exactly that way. I'm not even going to go near
Schindler's List, if you can't cry to that, you're probably dead.
Anyone been watching the pictures from Hati? And that does not break your heart? And it does not require all that ugly, sheer beauty can do it too.
I used to cry once a year when I lectured about Vietnam. At the end of that lecture I'd read (because I think it's important for college educated persons to know what the impact of their decisions can be) from a book called
Shrapnel in the Heart. It contains letters and remembrances left behind at the Vietnam War Memorial. The letters from the wives who would never see their husbands and parents who would never see their child, those got to the girls, you could see the boys holding back. Then the letter from the kid who would never know her dad - almost there. Then the letters - the ones that worked on the guys, the ones from the people who came back to their buddies they had to leave in the field - that got them, because in those letters they could see themselves.
But sometimes you have to cry for the sheer awesomeness of how good people can be, and that's OK too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzyhnkT_jY&feature=related#http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jocw-oD2pgo&NR=1#Aww, maybe there is a bit of room for crying, even in baseball.