I am an emotional fool.

Anything that tugs at your proverbial heartstrings, even it's corny, I will cry.  I think I accepted this when I was very young and watched The Champ with my grandmother - we BAWLED when (SPOILER ALERT!) he dies.  From that moment on, I was destined to cry at everything.  I clammed up a bit in high school and early in college, but then I realized that I was becoming "a real man," the asinine stereotype of a male who is not allowed to show his feelings.  From then on, there is nothing that doesn't get to me.  A perfectly-crafted song or play, I will weep.  Anything that I can relate to how I feel about my kids; forget about it!

Perfect recent example: there is a song in Hamilton titled "Dear Theodosia" in which Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are singing a lullaby (duet) to their respective young children.  In the song, they both promise to do everything for their children to make the new country and the world a great place, even though they know they're going to mess up, and then hand it off to their children when they're older at which time they know their children will far surpass anything they have done or could ever have dreamed of their children doing.

We'll pass it on to you, we'll give the world to you, and you'll blow us all away...

I have made the mistake on several occasions of playing the cast recording while taking them to school.  That song comes on; by the time we get to their school, I am a mess.

(On a side note, notice how I have made a Hamilton reference three days in a row.  "I guess you could say I'm a fan."  Bonus points to anyone who knows what musical THAT line is from!)

So I am originally from the Twin Cities (that's Minneapolis/St. Paul and I'll argue with anyone who says otherwise!).  I love that streaming radio is now a thing, and I stream 89.3 The Current when I can.  Every weekday, the morning show does a specialty bit called "The Coffee Break" during which they create a half-hour playlist around a theme.  Today it was 2016 In Memorium, part 2 (!!).  Yep, there were so many musical artists who were taken from us they had to do it twice.  After the nice touch of including Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy," they ended with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."  If you don't know the song, do yourself the great favor of listening.  Apply it to everyone we lost in 2016, and you'll understand why I lost it today before work.

I bid you adieu for today with a hug and a tear.