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I meant it in a negative sense...as in an apathetic display of emotion.

Is the mother who goes on television, crying, looking for help, or is she making a statement. Look at me, I'm crying for my lost child, I'm a wonderful mother, you can tell just by the fact that I'm crying. Pity me, I'm so great, I can cry in front of millions of strangers because I love my child so much and that makes me the greatest parent of them all!

crying on television = sincerity

Therefore, Bill Clinton is not guilty and he also loves the military.

Even if a person is determined to restrain their grief and fear on a television interview, people are generally not able to prevent the involuntary signs. I watched this couple closely during their interview and failed to detect any of the signs you might expect from a parent whose child is in danger. Not tears, necessarily, but a twitch here or a gesture there. Some indication of hiding strong emotions.

I took this lack of expression to indicate that they are not very connected emotionally to their daughter in spite of their protestations of love for her or they are not worried about her because they already know what happened to her. Even people who think they are "good" parents may not feel strongly about their children. They go through the motions of being caring people, but their hearts are not deeply touched. When something happens to that child, the parents search for the depth of feeling they know they are "supposed" to feel and don't. Sometimes their detachment is obvious. Sometimes they put on a good show and people don't see through it.

So those of us who are very engaged with our children can't imagine reacting the way these somewhat detached parents do. I know I wouldn't care about how my makeup or hair looked. My mind would be on my missing child. These parents might even believe they love their kids. Their lips were saying all the appropriate things, but their eyes and faces revealed little depth of feeling or even hidden feeling.

If the neighbor turns out to be innocent, it must still be acknowledged that his actions that day were bizarre. And I would imagine even the strongest amongst us who are determined to keep our feelings private would have a more difficult time of it than we expected during a devastating event like losing a child.