There's an old saying that "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me". Yeah, right. All we have to do is refer to bombastic Jeremiah Wright's "God damn America" speech or the disgraceful Michael Pfleger mocking Hillary Clinton by imitating her crying presumably because "There's a black man stealing my show!" to discredit that argument. So, why are people so emotional about stuff? Or better still, what type of "emotional" are we talking about here?

Before we go any further, let's get one thing straight. Politicians have short memories. In other words, they may get emotional on the campaign trail for reasons that are legit enough, but after the dirty words pass, it's as if nothing happened and life goes on as it always has.

Then, we have real-life emotions. These are emotions of people other than politicians. Of course, there are Filipino helpers who get emotional when asked to change their day off and we have to mention ex-Sha Tin College teachers Sara Wilson and Nigel Lock again here because they overreacted to something that was said about them and decided to jump ship (they are now allegedly in Jakarta and probably having more sex after conceiving a child in 2001 out of lust not love). What they fail to realize, however, is that the media is aware of their actions and they will be talked about. They even asked for their names to be removed from the Sha Tin College web-site as if to say that "This never happened", but it happened just the same and people saw it. On the other side of the argument, consider the venerable Randy Pausch during his "Last Lecture". How can he not be emotional at that point in time? He's giving his farewell message to a place and an audience that he loves and that he's been a part of for decades because he had pancreatic cancer.

Another person that we mustn't forget is former White House press secretary/spokesperson Tony Snow. Why was he so emotional? He was waging war against colon cancer and that war was very public. During his last interview, he tried his best to hold his emotions, but he ultimately cracked when he told ABC's Robin Roberts that when battling cancer, "People want to love you. Let 'em, you know. Let 'em". Even the reporter covering the story, Martha Raddatz, choked up when she said that "There is no one whon was not inspired by Snow's courageous battle with cancer and no one who said goodbye to him that last day at the White House who will not hold onto that moment". Now, this isn't a story on the street. This is about a high profile figure battling a fatal disease. How can he not be emotional about that? Also, saying goodbye will be emotional 99% of the time because work for most people is their second family.

Bottom Line: Most people get teary eyed for reasons that are very legitimate (the Diet Coke and brownies people are the exception, not the norm).