While our kids were at a play centre there was a loud thud on the window as a bird crashed into it, and slid down to the ground outside. Kids ran over to the floor to ceiling window and saw the bird lying motionless on the ground. Parents came over to see what the commotion was about. One of the kids said, “Mummy, what’s wrong with the bird?”

True story… with a bit of ums and ahhs, their mother said, “The bird is just having a sleep dear.”

What’s the effect of giving people empty platitudes?

Using empty platitudes communicates that something is not worth thinking about. It subtly tells people, “Look, it’s not nice, but it’s not important either”.

And now we live in a culture where talking about death isn’t just taboo, its strange… We have “life celebration parties” rather than “funerals” and we tell kids that their pets are sleeping, and they don’t know their meat comes from dead animals.