Irenic Thoughts

Irenic. The word means peaceful. This web log (or blog) exists to create an ongoing, and hopefully peaceful, series of comments on the life of King of Peace Episcopal Church. This is not a closed community. You are highly encouraged to comment on any post or to send your own posts.

9/05/2006

My fault too?

"He always pushed himself to the very limits
but I thought he was invulnerable
and I think he did too."
—Steve Irwin's friend John Stanton
quoted in Adelaide Now.

You have no doubt heard the news that Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray while being filmed off the coast of Australia (Washington Post story here). I wasn't the 44-year old Croc Hunter's biggest fan, but I enjoyed his show and appreciated his movie. Like many, I questioned his judgment in the incident with taking his son in the croc pen a while back. But I liked the guy's work and I loved his enthusiasm. And perhaps because of that, I miss a guy I never met. I also feel like I helped egg him on toward his death.

OK. I know that is overstating things, but if I stood in a crowd that encouraged someone as they did cliff diving, wouldn't I feel somewhat responsible if the last jump of the day went bad and the diver died? This is different, but is it so very different? At some level, we are only responsible for ourselves. I never made Steve Irwin's choices, but I did help make his dangerous profession more lucrative.

Cain told God that he was not his brother's keeper. Should he have been? What level of responsibility do we have for the behavior of others?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church

posted by King of Peace @ Tuesday, September 05, 2006  

4 Comments:

  • At 9/05/2006 10:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You, me, and everyone else who ever watched his show did indeed contribute to his death.

    That said, though, we made a deal with him. We didn't ask him to die for us and we didn't even ask him to risk himself for us. We asked him to show us the things he loved. He gladly did that in exchange for the opportunity to try to protect those things.

    We all have to die sometime. I would hope we all wanted to go out doing something we loved, having provided (extremely well) for our families.

    I have no idea what his spiritual condition was but that's the bigger concern.

     

  • At 9/05/2006 12:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    On the other hand, I watched Steve Irwin in an interview with Matt Lauer the other day (replay) in which Matt was strongly questioning his behavior with his infant son and the croc. Steve put the question back on Matt (I'm paraphrasing here)asking him if he puts his child in a car. Isn't that inherently more dangerous? It may be apples and oranges, but I think the point is taken. Everyday is a gift and any one of us can go at any moment from any number of things. Do we participate in certain activities that increase the risk? Yes. And driving is certainly one of them, yet I will put my child in a car seat today and hit the road.

     

  • At 9/05/2006 6:40 PM, Blogger Kit said…

    I think Steve Irwin would have done exactly what he did, even if no one was watching (he was raised in his family's zoo, after all).

    Sure, he was someone who lived on the edge, but it was his edge. I'm pleased that we were able to walk there with him, meet the creatures he introduced us to, and have some laughs and gasps along the way.

    It's a dangerous world, even if you're just sitting in your kitchen. But he helped me see some of the beauty of God's creation in all that "dain-jah, dain-jah, dain-jah!"

     

  • At 9/05/2006 9:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Mr. Irwin was certainly passionate and changed the minds of many because of his passion. Would that we were as passionate about our Creator as he was about the creation.

     

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