I will be the first to admit that sometimes, when I am watching a feel-good movie or reading a really gripping novel that has distressing scenes, that I will cry.

Derek, stop your lying. You always cry.

So I'm a bit over the middle of the current book I am reading, which is William Forstchen's second John Matherson novel, entitled "One Year After," and just like the first book in this series (called One Second After) I am absolutely loving the book. In fact, I may have just fallen in complete love with this trilogy. There's one more book to go, which I do have and I am prepared (not) for Niagara Falls to dampen my chubby cheeks.

So why did I start sobbing tears of sorrow tonight?

SPOILER ALERT!

It's because some hack of a government official ordered an attack on a group of bad, bad people, and his idiotic people shot down innocent children, women, and frail old people. Our main character, John Matherson, rushes these people over to their hospital, where his wife is taking the lead in triage and taking care of these close-to-death patients. At one point, she remembers what happened to John's daughter in the first book and breaks down in the same tears that emanated from my tear glands tonight. Let's not forget that earlier, John found a young boy gripping his already-dead sister and when his wife was attempting to ensure that this young boy did not see that his sister was dead, God decided to say, "Hey, let me show you what I can do," and now the boy is in tears because he sees that his sister is dead, Makala is in tears, John's in tears, I'm in tears.

So I was an emotional wreck for about five minutes as I read this disturbing scene. Yeah, that really happened.

It is PERFECTLY OKAY to let a book or a movie hit you in the feels and run away, like my dog does when I yell at her, "What the hell do you have in your mouth?" Honestly, if you were to see a really sad scene in a movie, or if you were to read a really provocative, depressing scene in a book and did not emotionally respond appropriately, I would start to ask the question if you should be taken to the local asylum over yonder. On the same vein, if something really amusing happens and you don't even crack a smile, I would also wonder if you were a sociopath.

I'm just kidding, of course. My main point in this brief blog entry is that showing emotion is human.

Thank you for wasting two minutes of your life reading my thoughts.