That's so / Beautiful
A Crying face post.
Your friend's dog has learned a new trick. It's only sitting, and it has been sitting for years, but this time it looked at you while doing it. You stand in the hallway holding a lead and a bag of something unmentionable, quietly falling apart. Someone's nan is shown a photo of a newborn on a phone. She holds it at arm's length, then close, then at arm's length again. By the third pass the whole room is reaching for tissues, and nobody is pretending otherwise. You put on a cello playlist "for focus". Four minutes in you have stopped focusing, you are staring at the wall, and the spreadsheet is now a distant rumour. Nothing has happened. It was simply a very sad piece of wood. The rota goes up and your name is not on it. Neither is the group photo you were meant to be in. It's a small thing, and you are being brave about it, with the face of someone who has been brave for a good while now. **Why it caught on:** the picture is a crudely drawn rage-comic face, with huge round eyes, streams of blue tears and both hands pressed to the mouth. People first used it for being overwhelmed by something unbearably cute, then for any feeling too big for the moment, from gratitude to heartbreak. It is easy to caption in any language, and it works just as well for sincere emotion as for sarcastic overreaction, which is why it kept turning up under photos, cartoons and the occasional pandemic announcement.