A football game was on in the background and the announcer said that one player’s brother had just died that morning in a car crash.  The player was a wreck, crying on the bench between plays, but then went on to score a touchdown.  I remember thinking two things:  Why is this guy at work, and I don’t think I could ever focus that much while dealing with something so tragic.

But the more I thought about it, we do this type of grief compartmentalization in everyday life too, don’t we?  I have friends who have been downsized who have to go into work and train their replacement in India while managing to not go postal.  Other friends are dealing with incredibly stressful family situations, yet pretend nothing is wrong in front of their kids.  And recently heard my friend’s 23 year old daughter just got diagnosed with a rare…