I'm sure most of you have heard about the murder-suicide involving former pro quarterback Steve McNair. Police have concluded that his mistress killed him while he slept, in part, because she suspected that her married beau was cheating on her with yet another woman. She then ended her own life.
As with most such cases with a known personality, all the focus has been directed at McNair's football prowess and his so-called wonderful standing in the community. People keep saying things like "Look at his body of work" and pay no attention to the sordid details that played a part in his death. Look, I used to think highly of McNair, but it's kind of difficult to ignore his level of philandering.
However, the person I feel the most sympathy for is his poor wife! Not only must she deal with the grief of losing her husband and the father of her 4 children, but she must be beside herself in anger at the circumstances. It's bad enough that he was messing around with one young woman, but it now seems apparent there were at least two of them. Who knows? Maybe there are more!
This type of incident only underscores again one of the serious problems in today's society. We put these athletes and celebrities up on pedestals and, after awhile, they begin to believe the hype. They surround themselves with sycophants -- "yes" people -- who cater to or help cover up for their every whim. Because of all the adulation they receive, they begin to think that they are above the laws and mores of the society.
Sooner or later though, it all comes crashing down. Their athletic prowess dims and/or their beauty ages. Sure, most of them aren't murdered, but hardly a week goes by that not another hero falls.
Steve McNair didn't deserve to be murdered, but he did set in motion the circumstances that led to it and those circumstances will now haunt his widow and 4 children for the rest of their lives.
As with most such cases with a known personality, all the focus has been directed at McNair's football prowess and his so-called wonderful standing in the community. People keep saying things like "Look at his body of work" and pay no attention to the sordid details that played a part in his death. Look, I used to think highly of McNair, but it's kind of difficult to ignore his level of philandering.
However, the person I feel the most sympathy for is his poor wife! Not only must she deal with the grief of losing her husband and the father of her 4 children, but she must be beside herself in anger at the circumstances. It's bad enough that he was messing around with one young woman, but it now seems apparent there were at least two of them. Who knows? Maybe there are more!
This type of incident only underscores again one of the serious problems in today's society. We put these athletes and celebrities up on pedestals and, after awhile, they begin to believe the hype. They surround themselves with sycophants -- "yes" people -- who cater to or help cover up for their every whim. Because of all the adulation they receive, they begin to think that they are above the laws and mores of the society.
Sooner or later though, it all comes crashing down. Their athletic prowess dims and/or their beauty ages. Sure, most of them aren't murdered, but hardly a week goes by that not another hero falls.
Steve McNair didn't deserve to be murdered, but he did set in motion the circumstances that led to it and those circumstances will now haunt his widow and 4 children for the rest of their lives.
Spinoza said "Most writers on the emotions and on human conduct seem to be treating rather of matters outside nature than of natural phenomena following nature's general laws. They appear to conceive man to be situated in nature as a kingdom within a kingdom: for they believe that he disturbs rather than follows nature's order, that he has absolute control over his actions, and that he is determined solely by himself. They attribute human infirmities and fickleness, not to the power of nature in general, but to some mysterious flaw in the nature of man, which accordingly they bemoan, deride, despise, or, as usually happens, abuse: he, who succeeds in hitting off the weakness of the human mind more eloquently or more acutely than his fellows, is looked upon as a seer.
ReplyDeleteStill there has been no lack of very excellent men (to whose toil and industry I confess myself much indebted), who have written many noteworthy things concerning the right way of life, and have given much sage advice to mankind. But no one, so far as I know, has defined the nature and strength of the emotions, and the power of the mind against them for their restraint. I do not forget, that the illustrious Descartes, though he believed, that the mind has absolute power over its actions, strove to explain human emotions by their primary causes, and, at the same time, to point out a way, by which the mind might attain to absolute dominion over them. However, in my opinion, he accomplishes nothing beyond a display of the acuteness of his own great intellect, as I will show in the proper place.
For the present I wish to revert to those, who would rather abuse or deride human emotions than understand them. Such persons will, doubtless think it strange that I should attempt to treat of human vice and folly geometrically, and should wish to set forth with rigid reasoning those matters which they cry out against as repugnant to reason, frivolous, absurd, and dreadful.
However, such is my plan. Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same, and everywhere one and the same in her efficacy and power of action; that is, nature's laws and ordinances, whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always the same; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature's universal laws and rules.
Thus the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from this same necessity and efficacy of nature; they answer to certain definite causes, through which they are understood, and possess certain properties as worthy of being known as the properties of anything else, whereof the contemplation in itself affords us delight. I shall, therefore, treat of the nature and strength of the emotions according to the same method, as I employed heretofore in my investigations concerning God and the mind. I shall consider human actions and desires in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes, and solids."
We can not blame McNair in this case. We do not know the circumstances. We do not feel the emotions. We were not there. Othello is a great story of how a good man can fall. Good people do horrible things.
Hi R T
ReplyDeleteGiven the strength and length of the previous comment I will pale in comparison here. :-) I do believe that we all, in part, are responsible for creating our own destiny.
Love to you and Della
Gail
peace.....
I feel sorry for everyone involved, including the woman who committed the crime. She was clearly mentally ill, too bad I don't know enough to speculate what type of illness she had.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, our evil deeds follow us around, and we eventually pay for what we do. What happened to this man is a clear example. The "payment" isn't always fair, though. Some serial killers die in jail living off of the tax payers.
Recently, in politics and the McNair murder, we have seen the consequences for people who step outside the accepted concept of what marriage is supposed to be and end up with some nasty consequences. The assumption could be-- don't do that... or it could be-- our concept of marriage is unrealistic and these stories are played out in ordinary people's lives daily with sometimes just as tragic consequences. I don't suppose it will change in my lifetime.
ReplyDelete