“What is it about our society that we’re so fascinated with gore and death, but so uncomfortable sitting with grief?
We’ll decorate our yards with bodies and gravestones, but struggle to hear a parent talk about their child who died.
We want the gruesome details of someone’s worst day. But when they need to keep talking about the person they lost months or years later, we stop knowing what to say. Sometimes we stop showing up.
I’m not asking everyone to stop celebrating Halloween. I’m asking why we make so much room for pretend death, but so little room for the people living with real loss.
Why can we look at all of that, but look away when someone says their child’s name?”
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Someone answered with kindness...
I think it’s because there’s a difference between what we feel in loss and fake death. IRL you grieve, you mourn, you lost something extremely important to you and people are sorry for you, it’s a heart wrenching feeling. But the halloween decors and fake death is to seek the adrenaline it gives to be scared and startled and to be reassured that it’s okay after. It’s entertaining to be scared but it hurts to grieve so we prioritize entertainment over it, like in everything else.