No cure, but there are diversions

 The holidays have predictable elements: feasts, parades, carols and sales. And you’ll see stories in newspapers about how to cope with grief.

Everyone says it’s natural. At a time when you think of those you love, you think of loved ones who are gone.

The best advice, I think, came from Montaigne. He said rational arguments don’t help with grief. The better the argument against grieving, the worse the grieving person feels.

Montaigne was once charged with consoling a grieving woman. She was obsessed with her loved one and with her loss. Montaigne deflected the conversation to a nearby subject — and then to gradually more remote topics. As the old soldier put it, "I made use of a diversion."

• Source: Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays, translated by M.A. Screech; London: Penguin Books, 1993, p. 936.