Aha... 'recreational grieving'! So THAT's what it's called. Yes, where did this new and distateful trend for public weeping & wailing come from? It really does seem like a way of showing off to me - nothing to do with real feelings at all. Yuck. Maybe it's part of this whole trend towards vicarious feeling we seem to be having at the moment, what with reality TV & the cult of celebrity being so popular & all.

My theory is that it's a reaction to the fact that any real sense of community or "tribal" identity is pretty much gone. People don't have so many real people around them to relate to or care about, so they develop emotional attachments to people they've never even met.

Sounds plausible, but I'm no psychologist - whaddya think?

Cheers
Tracey Dragonsfriend
Scorch's Pyrography