RIP

You know, it's still not setting in for me that Steve Irwin is dead.

I mean, I've been reading people's posts and comments about it, and the most common reaction I think I've seen is frank disbelief that it happened. "What?" people say. "Steve Irwin? But I thought he was invincible. I thought he would live forever."

A part of me finds this reaction fascinating - we know full well nothing is eternal, and that what Steve did was very often dangerous, but... at the age of 44 that man had vim and vigor enough for ten men his age, he loved his family dearly and fervently loved the animals of the world... he made a legend in his own time. And we came to think of him as something eternal. He was so much larger than life, we thought he was larger than death.

I wasn't exactly an avid fan, largely because I don't watch TV, but when I saw him, I liked him. And he was so alive. I think back at interviews I've seen and I can't believe they're in the past. I look at the man's pictures and I can't imagine there'll never be another one. No matter how I look at the news, it just doesn't make sense. Steve Irwin is not dead to me yet.

My best wishes and compassion go out to his wife and kids, and I do hope that his conservational efforts will endure after his death, that the positive mark he was making on the world will stay there. But those wishes are still made in a quiet, stunned sort of way.

I thought he would live forever.