sam and the city

The five stages of grief

Good day faithful readers. In a book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross called "On Death and Dying" she identifies five stages in the grief process (I mean apparently she does, I can't say that I've ever read it). These are as follows:

Denial - this isn't happening to me
Anger - why is this happening to me?
Bargaining - I promise that I'll be better if...
Depression - I don't care any more
Acceptance - I'm ready whatever comes

The reason that I bring this up is that recently parliament passed an act which means that as of next summer (winter 2007 for all my Australian readers) a new law comes into effect which will prevent people from smoking in pubs. Of couse this been the talk of the town in the world famous Blue Anchor Pub ever since. Now I'm no pschiatrist, but I really feel that the clientele here are moving very slowly through the stages. I'd suggest that very few have even moved past the denial stage yet. All the talk that I hear goes something along the lines of:

"It'll never happen, do you know how much business pubs will lose? Everyone in here smokes, so as soon as the law comes in people will just stop coming in. It just can't work!"

As much as I try to tell people that exactly the same fears were raised when the law was introduced in Australia, and pubs still do a roaring trade, they refuse to listen. I guess when it comes down to it, for some people it's just going to be a contest, one addiction versus another! Meanwhile, if history repeats itself the pubs will continue to operate as per normal and people like myself can look forward to serving a far less stinky crowd

posted by sam @ 9:35 pm