hurricanes, trampolines, and crocodile hunters (Sept 5, 2006)

Something pretty sad happened the other day... We lost a pretty great person and advocate for, well, nature I guess. To a sting-ray sting, no less! When my friend Paul first yelled out to his wife Jamie and I that the Crocodile Hunter had been killed by a sting-ray I couldn't believe it. What a crazy way to go! It's the crocodile hunter, for crying out loud.

It's like when the monk Thomas Merton died - he lived in dangerous third-world countries working peacefully for justice by ministering to the people around him, and faced all kinds of dangerous & life threatening situations, wrote amazing prayers and reflections about God... and was killed when he was taking a bath and his fan fell into the tub. Goodness.

This guy said it was like Jacques Cousteau drowning. I mean, just crazy, right?

Well then we saw the sting-ray barb that pierced Steve Erwin's heart and that thing was like 6 inches long. It looked pretty stinkin' dangerous to me! And I thought that even though silly, inconsequential things like fans and sting-rays might not seem life-threatening, you never know when something totally ridiculous is going to happen to you and end your happy little life!

So enjoy it while you can, before you die in a freak La-Z-Boy accident or something!

On to hurricanes. I find it interesting how every time there's a tropical depression off the west coast of Africa it's all over the news in America now. I'm all for preparing ourselves for hurricanes, obviously. I just think it's funny how people react to potential dangers now. It's good to be prepared. It really is. And I'm glad we are learning how to notice warning signs and stuff so as to avoid more disasters. I just... I don't know. I think some people overreact to some things and it takes the magic out of living. I guess that comes with the territory when you live in a world where you have to have a fence around your trampoline.

I grew up in a time when there were no fences around trampolines and you were totally in danger of flying completely off and onto the ground - and did on several occasions. I grew up in a time when there weren't a million stupid weather watch warnings whenever the sky clouded over and started to rumble gently. I grew up in a time when kids played sports for fun, and not because their parents think so low of them that they're told being a star soccer player is their only way to succeed in life. But some things have been around forever. Fear-based campaigns, you know?

There have always been terrorists threatening the American right to spend millions of dollars on products made in third-world sweat-shops, a man who wants to date another man has always been a huge threat to the sanctity of a totally unrelated man's relationship with his wife, and the fact that you can get an abortion legally has always been the main and primary reason why women get abortions in the first place. *sigh*If you scare people enough, they'll do what you want them to.

I'm not sure I like living in a society where the leaders recite that more than they pray.