Men Don't Cry, Do They?

Sirius XM satellite radio offers six channels of Christmas music during December.  It's a delight to listen to the commercial-free songs while driving around, whether old-timey ones or more recent efforts.  

One of those songs which I've heard several times this month is Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne."  It's not really a Christmas song, as it has nothing to do with the birth of Christ or the Advent/Christmas season.  But it's usually played on the radio in December, among the "Silver Bells" and "Jingle Bells" and "Little Drummer Boy" because the setting for the story-line happens on Christmas Eve.  

And for some unknown reason, I almost always cry when I hear the song.

It's a deceptively simple story.    The songwriter bumps into a former girlfriend, they talk, they part.  The performance is spare too, with a haunting intro, Fogelberg's gentle singing voice, and a mournful sax solo to conclude.  Here are the lyrics (and where you can listen to his performance):

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And touched her on the sleeve

She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried.

We took her groceries to the checkout stand
The food was totaled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation dragged.

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And drank it in her car.

Refrain:  We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness 
But neither one knew how.

She said she'd married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didn't like to lie.

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn't sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude.

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly 
But the traveling it was hell.

Refrain:  We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

Refrain:  We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence
Another "auld lang syne"

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away.

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain.

As the calendar gets changed, you look back at the past year, and all the years passing by so quickly, and wonder...what if.  Fogelberg's lyrics touch something in me as I think about the losses in my life.   Themes of regret, and wistfulness, and loss, and hurt, and moving on, waft through my mind and heart.

This is not the only song which inevitably moves my tear ducts to get a workout.  Stephen Sondheim's "Children and Art" and "Move On" from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Sunday in the Park with George, also do this.  In those classy songs, especially as sung by Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin, the themes are creativity and fear, possibility and hope.  

And when I do cry, I also remember John 11: 33-35, where Jesus is "moved by the deepest emotions" at the death of his friend Lazarus, and weeps.

Do you have any songs which move "the depths of your being" and make you cry?