I’ve followed all of these threads, but not commented. Been thinking about it all a lot, and what the behaviours we have seen in this case might mean for us as a society going forwards. It’s worrying.
The key thing I have taken from this is that while it is right, fair and not least, kind to make allowances for the behaviour of grief stricken people, grief simply can not be a ‘get out of jail free’ card for any and all actions. It can not and does not excuse anyone from being actively and deliberately harmful toward others. None of us lives in a bubble, our actions affect those around us, even in grief.
While I am talking more generally above, I do feel this extends to things like balloon releases. Balloon releases harm animals, often kill them. Why does grief get you a free pass to do this? To take the argument to the extreme for a minute, what if I felt kicking animals helped me work through some of my anger in grief? Of course that would be abhorrent. But it’s the same result. Living creatures are harmed.
The issue with balloon releases is that people usually only do them when they are grieving. So, if we decide this is a taboo topic when people are grieving, how will it ever be addressed? I helped organise a balloon release, many years ago now, at the funeral of a young adult relative. I didn’t know the harm it does back then. I wish someone had told me about it, we would have chosen not to do it. And my relative loved animals, he’d have hated the thought we might have caused harm as a tribute to him, as do I.