Obligatory Reaction Post

[sadlikeknives]

When I was in high school, my mom and I used to watch Crocodile Hunter after school together. She teaches biology, so it was kind of fascinating to her. About halfway through, one of us would go off to start dinner and the other one would call commentary from the study about whichever dangerous animal he was courting death from that day. He was so passionate about his work, and he seemed indestructible, you know? Like he could run around wrestling all these incredibly dangerous animals, but he still was going to die in his sleep at age 95 or something.

And then he goes and dies in a freak accident involving a stingray. WTF is up with that, universe?

This morning, I told her what I'd learned from the internets in the wee hours of the morning, and the first words out of her mouth were, "What ate him?" Then, she said, "Oh, he's got two small children, doesn't he? That poor family..." I told her what I knew, and we just sat and were quiet for a minute, and then we got back to work fixing lunch, because that's what you do.

I would say I hope he rests in peace, but this is Steve Irwin we're talking about, and I suspect he would find a peaceful afterlife an exquisite form of torture. So, as I read elsewhere, I choose to hope that somewhere in Heaven there is a mud pit full of cranky crocodiles that need their toenails clipped. It's what Mr. Irwin would have wanted.

Comments

[lizbetann]

Serious word.

I have to say, when I first saw the headline, my first thought was, "I hope to God that it was a car accident or something." Because people are going to take it as, "Look, look, even he got killed! Let's shoot all the dangerous animals, what?"

It was an entirely freak accident that happened, yes, because his career was dealing with wild animals.

[coltsbane.livejournal.com]

Yep. And stingrays aren't even aggressive towards humans. They defend themselves when they feel threatened, but they don't go after them with intent to harm. This was just an accident, but you get that when dealing with animals. Just because they're unpredictable doesn't mean they're out to hurt everyone. It's only humans that are like that.

[maryng.livejournal.com]

This is a nice memorial post. Thanks for writing it. I totally agree about imagining him living to 95, and that I hope his heaven is full of wild animals for him to play with. I feel like everyone I've talked to today was surprised and sad to hear about it. It really is too bad. I was no great fan, but he was someone who did what he loved, and it was exciting and sometimes dangerous, and you can't help but respect that. I read in Bill Bryson's In A Sunburnt Country that there are more things that can kill you in Australia than anywhere else in the world - plants, animal species, extreme weather, etc. It's practically prehistoric in places.