Finally!

A lot of bad things happen in the world. A lot of bad things happen in the United States. A lot of bad things happen in families. And a lot of bad things have always happened in the those entities. It's the nature of life on this terrestial ball.

In the last twenty or so years it has been common for the news to report that when a disaster or heinous crime occurs "grief counselors" have been dispatched to the scene to counsel the survivors or witnesses. Grief counselors were even sent to the emotional rescue of tsunami survivors.

Call me skeptical, or even cynical, but I've always had doubts about the value of such services. Grief counseling always seemed to me to be an exercise in busy-bodyism and a form of modern day hired mourners. The difference being that it is probably more cost efficient to hire professional mourners than it is to engage the services of a grief counselor. The best grief counselor, to my little mind, has always been a family member or a friend. In other words, someone who knows one instead of a hired buddy.

A recent study in the Netherlands shows that perhaps the grief counselor racket is a racket:Telegraph News Grief counseling a waste of time, say psychologists But you know how it is. Where there is money to be made, money will be made.