William Shakespeare got it exactly right four centuries ago when he had newly widowed Gertrude speak these words to her son, the grieving prince of Denmark in "Hamlet":

"Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity." Act I, scene 2, line 72.These are words of wisdom, but not necessarily consolation, in an era when the deaths of people most of us have never met take on disproportionate meaning. We have our social and corporate media and the artificial intimacy it generates to blame for much of our celebrity grief. On Christmas evening, I got a news alert on my phone that pop singer George Michael had died.Now, I've never met George Michael, seen him in concert or bought any of his albums. If anything, he's been an irritant since his days in Wham! when his outrageously infectious songs tunneled their way into my brain without my consent. Still, the fact that he once annoyed me at the dawn of the MTV era didn't stop me from getting on Twitter to spread the word.Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt compelled to step away from Christmas dinner to gather around Mr. Michael's virtual funeral pyre. The pop superstar was yet another casualty of an exceptionally nasty year that even mere mortals like most of us can't help but take personally.Because we're empathetic beings, few of us are indifferent to the deaths of such people. On a subconscious level, the deaths of even the rich and well-known confirm what we spend most of our waking lives suppressing: Life is terminal and death (with a small "d") is extremely democratic. Even money can't buy you extra breath.When David Bowie died at the beginning of this terrible year, his passing seemed to ignite an arms race of notable deaths. I shed the first tear of a year of tears just thinking about what Mr. Bowie's music has meant to me over the decades.It was a January death followed in quick succession by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, novelist Harper Lee and the great sitcom star Garry Shandling.Those were followed in February by the deaths of Earth, Wind & Fire frontman Maurice White, Nancy Reagan, Beatles impresario George Martin, A Tribe Called Quest's Malik "Phife Dog" Taylor, wrestling star Chyna and the irreplaceable Prince.Prince's death generated more than a nostalgic lump in my throat because so many milestones of my young adult life can be charted by which of his earliest classics was on the radio at the time.Between April and June, the outlaw Merle Haggard was taken from us along with "60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer, funk-master supreme Bernie Worrell and Elvis sideman Scotty Moore.Former boxing champ Muhammad Ali's death on June 3 generated one of the greatest outpourings of grief the world had ever seen - and rightly so. His death coming as it did near the year's halfway point put us all on edge wondering who else this terrible year would claim.The Grim Reaper didn't relent. Other notables over the summer included Holocaust survivor and international conscience Elie Wiesel, cartoonist Jack Davis and actor Gene Wilder.From early September to the Christmas holiday, some of the most influential among us fell like the last leaves of the season: Pittsburgh heroes Arnold Palmer and Bill Nunn; America's first female Attorney General Janet Reno; the sultan of dark songs Leonard Cohen; the journalist's journalist Gwen Ifill; soul siren Sharon Jones; America's mom, Florence "Carol Brady" Henderson; astronaut hero John Glenn; and socialite/actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.We could fill an entire wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just with the names of influential musicians who died this year, from Mose Allison, Lonnie Mack and Buckwheat Zydeco to Leon Russell, Guy Clark and Glenn Frey. We could throw in Sonny James, Paul Kantner, Papa Wemba and Ralph Stanley for good measure.The number of actors, directors, playwrights, sports icons, scientists, politicians, world leaders and media figures who left us this year is also staggering. Death by old age did what the CIA could not and took out Cuba's Fidel Castro. Even the long-lived king of Thailand finally shuffled from this mortal coil.We knew death was serious this year when it finally took the once-beating heart of actor Abe Vigoda. The "Barney Miller" and "Godfather" actor was routinely written off as "already dead" only to emerge from such rumors very much alive. He was joined in death by his "Barney Miller" castmate Ron Glass, one of my favorite actors on '70s television.This week we lost both Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds.In our darker moments, those of us still in mourning from the November election results would add the "death of American democracy" to this depressing list. In a few days, 2016 itself will be dead and gone. Those left alive will breathe a deep sigh of relief, praying that what follows isn't more of the same.