News coming down the pipe this morning is that Steve Irwin, the infamous Crocodile Hunter, has died today. He was filming an underwater documentary when a stingray stung him, its barb entering his chest.

This is somewhat upsetting news to me. Sure, he lived a life of danger, always on the edge of something like this occurring, but he did it out of love for nature, which I can certainly appreciate. Death was always inches away, and I’m sure it crossed his mind more times than we can count.

The real reason it upsets me is Steve had a small role in the life of myself and my daughter. You see, Kelsie is adopted. I met my wife Wendy when Kelsie was four (actually, we “met” three days after Kelsie’s fourth birthday) so she was already set in some ways, and early on we had some challenges in connecting with each other.

However, as she grew, there was one show on TV we both enjoyed, and it was the Croc Hunter. Kelsie and I used to sit together in awe of Steve handling snakes or getting right up on huge bugs, doing all of this out of love for the species he was highlighting.

We hadn’t watched Steve do his thing as of late, but I’m sure he was wily as ever. Godspeed Steve.

[tags]crocodile hunter, steve irwin, discovery channel[/tags]