Boogers come out my nose when I cry

I was having a conversation with someone about the word "maudlin" the other day. Despite achieving School Certificate English in 1978, it was a new word to me. It turns out that my friend had been feeling a bit maudlin and when I asked for an explanation, she described it as a bit "Eeyoreish". Not surprisingly, that was a word I could understand a little more clearly.

Me and my Eeyoreish friend :-)

Neither of us were fully satisfied with our definition so we raced to our respective homes to find a dictionary.  My friend beat me to it - she's also beating me in online Scrabble at the moment.  It turns out that maudlin means "foolishly tearful or sentimental, as when drunk

[from Middle English Maudelen Mary Magdalene, typically portrayed as a tearful penitent]"

This is a maudlin drunk

I got to wondering about the connection between the word and Mary Magdalene. I can understand that the word sounds ever so slightly like her name, but I was never aware that she was foolishly tearful while drunk.  I've seen a few Booze Hags in my time (you know who you are!) and hadn't really pictured Mary as one of them.

This is apparantly Mary Magdalene and I don't think she's had a drop

So I wondered, if it wasn't the booze, what was Mary always weeping about?  When I think of her, I think of a woman who had a bit of a chequered past. Someone who felt pretty icky about some of the things she'd done. Someone just like...ME. When I think of her meeting Jesus, and hearing Him tell her that she was okay by Him, I think I can picture her having a right snot fest at the wonder of someone so magnificent loving her just as she was.  The art work we see of Mary Magdalene crying is a bit glamorous I think. She doesn't have puffy eyes or boogers dangling off the end of her nose. Her mascara doesn't even run.  Mine does...

...I don't even look this pretty:

This is a Snot-Fest

I've decided that I quite like the way Mary Magdalene cries. Her tears remind me of forgiveness, being unconditionally loved no matter what, being able to love someone else (in her case, Jesus) so much that it makes you leak uncontrollably.  I want to be able to love like that.  Maybe feeling slightly maudlin once in a while isn't so bad - just stay away from the plonk.

 Incidentally, during the course of our conversation I told my Eeyoreish friend my mother's middle names: Maud Ellen. She thought it was hillarious.