Why I am upset about Steve Irwin (even though I did not particularly like him)

As everyone from Cairns to Surfer's to Hobart to Torquay to Adelaide to Kalgoorlie to Perth to Darwin to Alice already knows, the Crocodile Hunter died Monday in a freak diving accident involving a stingray's barb and an unimaginable level of accuracy.

My heart just sank when my husband told me the news. And I didn't even really care for Steve Irwin, especially after that crocodile feeding/infant dangling incident in 2004. Yet....

My reasons for feeling so awful are seven-fold:

(1) He left behind those little kids.

(2) He is Australian and therefore would have been my mate if I had ever met him.

(3) People are idiots and will claim that he harassed the stingray, and/or people are idiots and will think that stingrays are evil villains -- a perception of "dangerous" animals that Steve Irwin spent his life trying to change.

(4) The animal kingdom lost a high-profile advocate. I can't think of many other people who could look at a snake and see "beauty." Yet there is beauty in every animal. Steve Irwin understood this.

(5) It's always extra-pointless when someone dies in a freak accident. It would have been "better" if he had been killed by a crocodile.

(6) Australians rally around their own and I just feel bad for the whole country.

(7) Like him or hate him, he was passionate. I've read that he was passionate about the big stuff (his wife, his family, his work, reptiles) as well as the small stuff (a delivery of mulch to the Australia Zoo). I totally get people who are passionate about things; a few months ago, I was totally excited about a mulch delivery to my house.

(8) The world needs larger-than-life personalities who are working for good.

The whole thing really has been bothering me. And although I am surprised to be typing these words, I will miss Steve Irwin. My heart goes out to his family and his little ones.