Stung

A man can defy death in a thousand ways, land, air, and sea, yet be struck down where ordinary man would go untouched.

So it is for Steve Irwin killed by an animal that, despite its fierce name, almost never kills:

Steve Irwin, the popular Australian television personality known as the Crocodile Hunter, was killed Monday after being stung by a stingray on a diving expedition off the Great Barrier Reef.

Irwin, 44, was filming an underwater sequence for a television series on remote Batt Reef off the far northeast coast of Australia when he encountered the stingray and was stung in the chest about 11 a.m.

Irwin was shooting a segment for a series called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he swam too close to one of the stingrays, his friend and colleague John Stainton told The Associated Press.

"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time.

Whether one takes great risks or clings to safety, one eventually dies.

Would that we all had a little bit more of Steve Irwin's spirit of adventure; we would all die with fewer regrets.

Source: CTV