A taste of Mortality

A little under a week ago, a man I looked up to for many years died. He seemed to be always cheerful, he loved life, and devoted his life to the conservation of animals and raising his family. In America, thoughout the general population, he seems to be a joke, even in death. Even I learned about him through the jokes and so forth, then I saw how devoted he was to what he was doing, and how careful he was about doing it. He wasn't the crazy person we all thought he was, he was just a little exagerated and devoted. I still liked to joke about him, I didn't find it offensive, nor did I find it unfunny at most times through the day. I watched him seem to never grow older, and his family grow up. He taught me alot about animals, there traits, why they do certain things they do, and that a gorilla charge doesn't hurt that much. Him and his family seemed to become part of my family, he was in everyday conversations, and so often in my thoughts.
Ever since I was about five, and went to sea world for the first time, I've wanted to work with animals in one way or another, study them, see them, play with them, so forth. I think thats why he was such a big part of my life, he was as devoted as I wanted to be, and more excentric then I think I could ever be. Anyone who loved him a quarter as much as I did will miss him dearly.
Steve Iriwn, We'll miss you mate.


That may be the end of that story, but it's not the end of the post. His death brought something up that directly affected me making this blog. It was shortly after learning about his passing I releized that man, all man, is mearly mortal. As a teen, I still had the concept that I'll live forever. I always knew I'd die eventally, but I figured I'd live thru about anything untill then. There are a hundred thousand ways to die, and so many of them happen to people my age everyday. Guns, drugs, knifes, car crashes, random health disorders no one noticed, so much, I'm shocked we're all still here. I've aways written about death in my stories, my poetry, even just random stuff I write like this, but I've never really expereanced it untill now. I saw my great grandmother about a day after she died, and my great aunt a few days later, neither of which I had seen in years, so I couldn't take those that hard. Along with that, they were quite old, so I figured it was just there time. To take a man so young, with such a young family just seems wrong, I'm sure people say that about every young person that has died, but to me, this one seems different. Something that surprises me is I take the death of a man I would of probaly never met harder then I've taken deaths of relatives. The morning will pass, people will move on, but now I know people die, and thats something that will live with me forever.