Mourning someone you didn't know - acceptable?

[Quicksilvre]

[ QUOTE ]
Agree with you that crying and taking time off work is silly. Feeling really bummed out is fine, like when Chris Farley died.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. OP, are you still coworkers with the lady in question? Is she always like this?

[pryor15]

it's pretty safe to say that if i worked where OP worked, I'd be really shook up by the Bergman/Antonioni twofer. Hell, that might take the rest of the summer to get over.

[esad]

There is nothing wrong with feeling sad or a little bummed out, but beyond that it's a little odd. I mean Princess Di is a relative of mine and I found it a little sad, but I hardly mourned her death. I didn't really know her personally.

I think it has a lot to do with the way people get into the personal lives of celebrities. They almost feel like they do know them, although of course it's all an illusion. The fact that people react so strongly says more about how much people live their lives vicariously through celebrities today then it does about inappropriate mourning.

[Blarg]

Exactly. People often identify far more strongly with celebrities than they do with people they know, which can get pretty warped. It's not just death that makes things so silly, either; some people get really talkative and defensive about whatever Angelina or whoever is doing. Shows how disassociated from our own lives we can be and how desperate to fill that void.

[TheDudeAbides]

Hi all. I guess I never considered how attached people become to celebrities. This was a unionized retail job, so she was able to get away with after getting a note from her doctor. To me, it just seems odd to feel anything other than fleeting sadness after a celebrity dies - no matter how much you liked/admired them.

[Blarg]

She sounds like the type who would take time off for some other lame excuse anyway. Just an irresponsible person.

[stigmata]

[ QUOTE ]

Diana ...... visited aids patients and touched them at a time everyone was scared of them

[/ QUOTE ]

Great comeback in a Brighton office where I was working at the time:

WOMAN (sobbing): It's so sad.....
MAN: Oh get a grip, it's not like you knew her
WOMAN: But she touched people with aids....
MAN: Well I shagged people with aids!

[stigmata]

fwiw I sometimes find myself holding back tears at some random horrid news stories..... IMO crying/mourning is just fine, taking time off work is obviously ridiculous.

[John Cole]

[ QUOTE ]
it's pretty safe to say that if i worked where OP worked, I'd be really shook up by the Bergman/Antonioni twofer. Hell, that might take the rest of the summer to get over.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who?

[John Cole]

I remember well my reaction to John Lennon's death, which I heard on the way to the movies with a date. I turned to her and said, "Oh hell, I had my money on Paul."