Phil, You Great Big Cry Baby!

I get quite emotional a fair bit and I think that's very positive actually. Why be alive if you can't experience feelings? Very rarely though do I actually cry. It's not some sort of macho thing (anyone who knows me know I'm not macho!) that says I don't believe a guy can cry, it's just with me, whatever chemical reaction that has to happen in that moment to cause crying often doesn't take place.

Several songs, moments on a film/TV can get me all choked up and I feel that lump in my throat. However only once can I remember actually crying when watching TV. Rather humerously (and embarassing now!) it was when Kylie Minogue's character on "Neighbours", Charlene, did her final scene. It was 1988 and I would have been five or six years old (are you saying "awwww bless" yet??) and she drove off in an orange mini leaving her friends and family behind on Ramsey Street that I shed many tears. Awww! (ohh it looks like I'm not the only one)

Today, aged 28, I cried for the first time when listening to a song. As I say, there are many songs I could list (which I will provide if asked) that give me a lump in my throat. However, something in this song below caused that rush of whatever hormone it is to flow into my blood stream today.

The song in question is "Someone Like You", by Adele. It's so beautiful, accounting an experience of unrequited love. The lyrics are so powerful and return you to a moment experienced by many yet so personal to oneself.

This line in particular strikes a real chord with me:

"I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited but I couldn't stay away I couldn't fight it."
It reminds me of the time I turned up, unannounced at the home of the person for whom I had unrequited love. I was 14 years old (which turned out to be year 2 of an 8 year thing I had for her!) and I went up to hers with the aim of confessing my feelings to her. I chickened out at the last minute.

So, get a tissue at the ready, watch and admire.

Twenty-six Little Squiggles

The written word, a compound of one or more of these strange shapes we know as letters. Kinda amazing when you think about it.

The Magna Carta through to hand-written letters from friends and family I have kept. Each little "squiggle" touches someone, somehow, in some way. Whenever "a writing" is produced, I think a moment of perfection exists because they provide us (humans Inc) with the means to communicate our deepest thoughts and desires, each one generated by any one of billions of tiny little neurons. So yeah, I think it's pretty cool that we have these letters. I wouldn't be able to share this with you now without them!

Twenty-six Little Squiggles

Twenty-six little squiggly lines,
All innocent and inconspicuous,
Like a love who is unrequited,
They sit unaware of their power,

Upper and sometimes lower,
Set ready for the dart thrower,
Going from quill to keyboard,
The pen is mightier than the sword

Rosetta Stone to Tweeting
Hieroglyphics to "OMG",
Continually evolving?,
Definitely, maybe,

W.H. Auden to W.H. Smiths,
Both places for squiggles to enlighten,
Shakespeare and Wordsworth,
Inspired by authors unknown,

Causing smiles and tears, happiness and despair,
In the right hands, beautiful, in the wrong, hell,
Eight squiggles to tell someone they're special,
Yeah, those are my favourite of all the squiggles,

Twenty-six little squiggles.