Death, the afterlife, and that big ole zoo in the sky
So... Irwin got stung by a stingray. And all a hell of a lot of people can say is "Crikey?"
I'm appalled at the heartless jokes that fly around teh net. I'm not surprised really, but man... All I can think about is... what about his wife and kids?
B pointed out to me (when we discussed this earlier today) that its likely that Mrs Irwin (I can't recall her name) may possibly have not heard about it yet. As apparently she's traipsing around the Tassie hills or somesuch (I'll paraphrase here, so blame me if that sounds insensitive)
When I was told about this originally, I asked the dude at work... you're kidding me right? This is some strange publicity stunt? And when finding out that no, its not some sick perverted stunt, I've been rather odd about it all.
I mean sure, the dude was in a dangerous line of work. And sure, he seemed like a gormless drongo most of the time. But man, for a guy like that to go in the way he did... that's rather I dunno... strange satire where life imitates parody.
And it makes me sad.
Mostly because the world is made a lesser place without the gormless antics of Mr Iwin. Whos only real fault is that he enjoyed doing what he did with so much passion and life, that the rest of us just couldn't keep up. He seemed like a loon to us because we just couldn't understand the level of love that he had for his job.
For most of us, our jobs are just something we do to pay the bills. We don't really like our jobs, let alone love our jobs. Yeah, some of us do like where we work, and the people that we work with. But the majority of people I know don't actually "love" their work.
Steve Irwin to me is one of those blokes who made the world a better place. He was loud, and I'd say to me he was obnoxious, but by damn that man loved his job. So much so, that it was like he loved his job so the rest of us could hate our own. He loved it so much that you could see the childlike glee emanating from his eyes as you watched him talk about the crudness that are icky bugs sneaking through quarantine. And you could see it every time he was interviewed. Despite having animals nearby that most people would count as dangerous, the man just had a pure enjoyment of just trying to let people see these creatures for what they were... lovely, and pure, and just as nature intended.
We looked at him, and saw the innocence break when he realised that "we" the "normals" out there thought he was mad. Especially when he fed crocs with one hand whilst cradling his offspring in the other.
We "normal" aussies got sick of the larrikin jumping out of bushes and yelling "Crikey". Hell, even the yanks got sick of that after a while. But despite all that, despite the numerous parodies, the spoofs and the satirical work surrounding this man named Irwin. I doubt any of us really "got" the real Steve.
And for that we should all be sad. For now we'll never get the chance to.
So vale Steve Irwin.
I hope they understand where you're coming from, where-ever you are.
I'm appalled at the heartless jokes that fly around teh net. I'm not surprised really, but man... All I can think about is... what about his wife and kids?
B pointed out to me (when we discussed this earlier today) that its likely that Mrs Irwin (I can't recall her name) may possibly have not heard about it yet. As apparently she's traipsing around the Tassie hills or somesuch (I'll paraphrase here, so blame me if that sounds insensitive)
When I was told about this originally, I asked the dude at work... you're kidding me right? This is some strange publicity stunt? And when finding out that no, its not some sick perverted stunt, I've been rather odd about it all.
I mean sure, the dude was in a dangerous line of work. And sure, he seemed like a gormless drongo most of the time. But man, for a guy like that to go in the way he did... that's rather I dunno... strange satire where life imitates parody.
And it makes me sad.
Mostly because the world is made a lesser place without the gormless antics of Mr Iwin. Whos only real fault is that he enjoyed doing what he did with so much passion and life, that the rest of us just couldn't keep up. He seemed like a loon to us because we just couldn't understand the level of love that he had for his job.
For most of us, our jobs are just something we do to pay the bills. We don't really like our jobs, let alone love our jobs. Yeah, some of us do like where we work, and the people that we work with. But the majority of people I know don't actually "love" their work.
Steve Irwin to me is one of those blokes who made the world a better place. He was loud, and I'd say to me he was obnoxious, but by damn that man loved his job. So much so, that it was like he loved his job so the rest of us could hate our own. He loved it so much that you could see the childlike glee emanating from his eyes as you watched him talk about the crudness that are icky bugs sneaking through quarantine. And you could see it every time he was interviewed. Despite having animals nearby that most people would count as dangerous, the man just had a pure enjoyment of just trying to let people see these creatures for what they were... lovely, and pure, and just as nature intended.
We looked at him, and saw the innocence break when he realised that "we" the "normals" out there thought he was mad. Especially when he fed crocs with one hand whilst cradling his offspring in the other.
We "normal" aussies got sick of the larrikin jumping out of bushes and yelling "Crikey". Hell, even the yanks got sick of that after a while. But despite all that, despite the numerous parodies, the spoofs and the satirical work surrounding this man named Irwin. I doubt any of us really "got" the real Steve.
And for that we should all be sad. For now we'll never get the chance to.
So vale Steve Irwin.
I hope they understand where you're coming from, where-ever you are.