Those who don't know...

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.

-Golda Meir

Mean, rude, self-centered, egotist, hateful, overbearing and the list just keeps on going. Those are all terms, people have used to describe me. I think they have it all wrong. I would illustrate myself with another word, Passionate. I have stong feelings, stong emotions and sometimes that comes across in a very negative way. The things I believe in, I believe to the very core of my soul. The things I love, I love to the very bottom of my heart. It is hard to hold that back. All of this is bottled up inside, it has to come out. I can show you my hurts as well as my joys, my fears as well as my love. They are all, one in the same.

Golda Meir was a passionate woman. She overcame impossible odds to become Isreal's first woman Prime Minister. She was described as, "the strong-willed, straight-talking, gray-bunned grandmother of the Jewish People". She was one of two women to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Afterwords, she was quoted as saying, "After I signed, I cried. When I studied American history as a schoolgirl and I read about those who signed the Declaration of Independence, I couldn't imagine these were real people doing something real. And there I was sitting down and signing a declaration of establishment.". She was Passionate about her heritage, her homeland, her people, her freedom. She was literally brought to tears over her actions, and what they meant for the entire world.

In the end, what I think she meant by this quote is, don't be afraid to express yourself. When you cry, cry from the heart. Don't be embarressed by your grief, your fears or your sadness. Show the passion! When you are able to do this, you can truly feel the joy of laughter. You can appreciate it more, because you also know the pain. You can't experience the one, until you've experienced the other.