Do sighs really matter?

Humans are the great communicators of the universe. They communicate with words, with looks, with body language, with sign language and, when all else fails, with sigh language.

Without sighs many married couples might never know what the other one is really thinking. One heavy sigh can bring the weight of the universe down upon one tiny pinprick of a head, and a long sigh of pleasures fulfilled can fill a room with love and light.

To some, sighs are the flatulence of the soul, for they always connect them with frustration, weariness, grief or yearning. To others, like William Shakespeare, sighs can be the dialect of romance, warts and all. The following is one of his poems.

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.

Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes.

Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears.

What is it else? A madness most discreet,

A choking gall and a preserving sweet.

I guess he had a fairly jaded eye when it came to love, but he did recognize that a sigh is not always just a sigh. There are those to whom a life with no sighs would be a life not worth living, for they sigh as naturally as they breathe.

I have a friend who could sigh a monkey out of a banana tree with little trouble. With her, you know right where you stand at all times. A heavy sigh might not indicate that a meltdown is coming, but it is a good sign that all is not rosy in the immediate vicinity.

Others wield their sighs like a sledgehammer, parting the sea of wretches before them with the time proven method of putting them in their place with a timely sigh of complete and total displeasure. Sighs are only one tool available to a bully, but they are one that should not be underestimated.

Even dogs will release a heavy sigh on occasion, usually when their lead-rumped owner decides to renege on the promised walk around the block. They also sigh with pleasure though, after a good meal and right before nodding off to dreamland.

The famous "Bridge of Sighs" was built in Venice, Italy in 1600, to connect the prisons with the inquisitor's rooms in the main palace. It was not given its name until the 19th century, when Lord Byron decided to popularize it. The name was supposedly inspired by the sighs of condemned prisoners as they were led to their date with destiny. In truth, at the time it was built that section of the prison was occupied mostly by small-time criminals. Sometimes fiction creates a much better name than fact though, and the "Bridge of Sighs" it remains.

Studies conducted in psychiatric institutions indicate that sighs are reported as being more frequent in patients with anxiety disorders. Don't let that stop you from sighing though, because there is probably a good chance that you have some other mental disorder that would dwarf the sighing thing.

I am going to have to keep a close eye on my sighing for the next little while, for my sharp eyed wife will be paying close attention to them after this. Can there be repercussions for an untimely sigh? Most likely there can.

Sighs matter.