If people go down to the end of the town, well, what can anyone do?

[madmoisellestar]

People say 'I'm sorry for your loss' and it's not that that's a bad way to put it, just sometimes funny. Of course it is a loss, a deep and real one, but it's... 'lost' seems more like the condition of my keys.
King John

Comments

[sihaya09]

I have always felt kind of ooky about that phrase, and could never figure out why. I always wonder if it seems heartless or insensitive that I don't really say it.

I guess it's partly that I know that nothing that's said can ease grief that's so deep and immediate. I totally get why people do say it, though. It's about as close as we can get to "I wish I could ease your pain," because all of us knows what it's like to be that person and to feel all the fear, anger, sadness, and other things that come along with fresh grief. You can never really put that sort of thing into words adequately, can you?

[whimmydiddle]

That particular poem was on a children's record we played a lot when I was a kid. One of Milne's lesser-known ones, I think, but I can still hear the sing-song rendition of it from that album.