The life of Tear Ducts

I was a Trauma Surgeon for decades.  The work was challenging, and the hours were long.  However, it was very fulfilling when we were able to pull a severely injured individual out of the jaws of death.  Nevertheless, there were sometimes  challenges that prevented us from achieving that goal due to the severity and nature of the injuries despite our best efforts to do so.  On those occasions, it was my responsibility to notify the patient’s family of their loss.  That is always a challenging activity for me.  I could usually control my emotions and provide the information to the family sympathetically but with minimal emotional expression, although there was one rare exception (see “Breath” in my blog at MedicineOutOfTheBox”).  But for the most part, I didn’t cry much at all except upon the deaths of my parents years ago.

However, now that I have retired, I find that I am shedding tears at all sorts of odd occasions: communicating with my kids and grandkids, reading certain passages in various books, and praying at mass for thanks to God and his son’s sacrifice.

Maybe aging has opened up my tear ducts, letting them flow in ways they were not able to previously.