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It's My Party. You Can Cry If You Want To!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

It's fine if you cry.

Every week, at least, and sometimes every day, somebody will start to sob and tear up and choke while they're explaining their situation to me.

That's doesn't mean that something's wrong. That just means that it's Wednesday.

It doesn't embarress me. It doesn't upset me. And you aren't wasting my time.

Don't worry about it.

About once a year, someone will come to visit and start out fine, start crying, and keep sobbing for our entire first half-hour appointment.

That's fine; I'll need to reschedule you so we can actually talk some, but it really is just fine.

Most people struggle to control themselves, and make themselves cry harder.

My guess is that it's easiest if you just go with the flow, sob your heart out, and then relax.

Because emotions are chemical in nature, not just electrical connections in your brain, they have something like momentum; so once the waterworks start, they have a tendency to need run their course, and I can generally tell which way it's going to go. It might be a quickie, and it might be a marathon.

Either way is fine; you can't control it, and it doesn't bother me, so it's a no-harm, no-foul situation.

We'll just set you up for another appointment, if you'd like that.

Some folks just have to get it out of their system, and they're fine once they finish sobbing.

And, of course, it's not just the ladies; guys feel so guilty that they've failed in their self-imposed goals to care for everyone they love that they often run through more tissues than women, who sometimes seem more realistic.

And remember, especially if you own a small business: everybody who has a small business is having a half-off sale! That is, you're selling half what you usually sell, whether it's haircuts, or body work on cars, or dentistry, or chiropractic care, or cheeseburgers, or housekeeping services, or photography.

And if you don't earn, you can't pay.

Which is why you're in my office, because I'm a bankruptcy lawyer.

I get it.

p.s. now, I started saying this thirty years ago, and it's still true: it's not a failure. It's a fresh start. So you cry all you need to, get it out of your system, and then we'll get you up and running again.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on October 30, 2010 (boomark / email).