Arthur C. Brooks defines grief as any involuntary loss of something cherished, not just death. About 15 million Americans, or 1 in 20, are grieving at any given time. Yet grief feels uniquely personal, creating a paradox between how common it is and how alone it makes you feel.
Grief is losing something or someone that you love. We typically think about it as because our loved one's dying, but it could be your company goes bankrupt, being fired from your job. These could be real sources of grief, and it can be little or big. The involuntary loss of something you cherish. That's what grief is all about. Now, when it comes to the death of a loved one, it's as normal as can be. 3 million people die each year in the United States alone, 1/100th of the population. And according to pretty good research, each person who dies on average leaves 5 people bereaved. And that means that in any given time, 15 million Americans are experiencing fresh grief. That's extraordinary. That's 5% of the population. You look right, you look left, 1 in 20 people is freshly grieving, which shows how ubiquitous it is. And yet it feels so strange and it feels so unusual and people feel so uniquely unfortunate when it actually happens, even though it's almost the most normal thing that we could expect.
