Risky Business

People are calling the death of Steve Irwin "tragic." I disagree. Let me explain why.

I don't suppose there are too many people out there who don't know who Steve Irwin was, but I'll fill you in anyway. Steve Irwin was an Australian documentarian who had a show on The Discovery Channel where he would handle poisonous snakes and come dangerously close to crocodiles -- hence his unofficial nickname, "The Crocodile Hunter." He was shooting a new show called "Ocean's Deadliest" and that title proved to be all too true when in the course of the shoot he was stung in the chest by a stingray and instantly killed.

Now, any man's death is sad, especially for the friends and loved ones that they leave behind. But the word people are tossing around in the aftermath of Irwin's death isn't sad, it's tragic.

And is it, really?

If you're his wife, or his small children, I suppose you would say yes. They have been deprived of a husband and a father.

But what about the rest of us?

Let me give you a counter example. If a gay porn star, a man whose speciality was being the passive partner in unprotective anal intercourse on camera, were to contract the HIV virus as a result of his career choice and die of AIDS, would you call that tragic? Or would you say that the man was engaging in risky, dangerous behavior and that his conduct finally caught up with him, as it was bound to eventually?

How is Steve Irwin any different? If I spent my life running in traffic and eventually got hit by a car and killed, would that be a tragedy, or would that be simply a matter of the odds catching up with me?

Steve Irwin -- who by all accounts was a nice, decent, personable man -- risked death on a daily basis. When you get too close to dangerous creatures (as Roy Horn can tell you), you are putting your life on the line. You may be able to get away with it for a long time, but eventually the odds will catch up with you, as they caught up with Steve Irwin.

We all make choices in life. We understand that our choices come with risks and potential unfortunate consequences and we act accordingly. Sometimes we take those risks into account, and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we get lucky, and sometimes we don't. But when we continually put ourselves in harm's way it's only to be expected that at some point, if we push it too much and too often, our luck will run out.

Steve Irwin's luck ran out this week. It's sad, especially for his family. But don't call it tragic.

Tom Moran