Closed lips, heavy hearts

There are, of course, all kinds of philosophical discussions about why bad things happen to good people (in fact, not I'm not sure it quite counts as philosophical, but it also reminds of of the little tricks they used to teach us in school for learning math ..."when bad things happen to good people, that's bad", though I can't quite remember what that applied to.  Was it working with negative numbers??)  ANYHOW ... it seems that life goes in bouts ... a string of all kinds of great, exciting, on-top-of the-world things, and then a string of all kinds of frustrating, saddening, the-world-is-falling-apart things.

Lately, there seems to be a lot of the latter, with close family and friends' friends being diagnosed with Alzheimers, pancreatic cancer, brain hemorrage, rare blood disease, thyroid disorder ....  While certainly not easy news to swallow for anyone, it's heartbreaking to me to see the extent to which everyone involved is fighting their own battle to accept the news, the grief, the fears, the uncertainties - on their own, rather than openly shedding the tears and wiping them off each others' cheeks in a collective time of need. 

Is it really normal to put on a smiling, it's-all-going-to-be-alright face when we're in each others' company, then let the avalanche of tears begin as soon as the bathroom door is closed?  It is really normal to be afraid to call and see how your hospitalised daughter is doing because doing so might risk having to speak with your estranged ex-wife? Perhaps it's what society has taught us is "normal", but it's times like these when we most need to see - and share - raw emotions with the people around us, who are so very much in need of the same.