Written October 29, 2003. My inspiration comes from the film, Cityof Angels, starring Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan. Their speech came from the movie itself, a melted-combination of the dialogue between the two main characters, a mishmash of sorts. The words touched me, and so I put them here.
History of Tears

"Tell me, what's in a tear?" But he really wanted to ask her, Why are you crying? Instead, he let his reputation get the better of him.

"It's the result of a chemical reaction within you body-," she started to say, wiping away the tears with the back of her hands, not wanting to let any run down her face. "It stimulates the tear ducts found near your eyes and it causes them to secrete a fluid-"

He merely watched her chatter on and he pretended to be interested in what she was saying. In truth, he wanted to be the one who wiped those tears from those beautiful eyes. Those sad eyes.

"- Resulting in a semi-salty-drop of water and chemicals that is also known as a tear."

She started to sob again just when it had subsided. She turned her head away from him.

He spoke softly "Then, if that's all crying is, then how can one tear cause a person so much pain?"

"I'm chemically imbalanced, that's why," came her feeble retort.

But he knew that wasn't true.

"I think…it's because you feel."

"A person is made of cells, and cells don't cry," she replied with a hoarse voice.

"But souls do."

"I don't believe in souls, it's just a myth."

"Then where will you go?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you believe that the world has nothing else to give."

"Then it's the end."

"Perhaps not." And he put his hand over hers to comfort her.

It was the least he could do.