Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has read quite a lot about the unfortunate, yet somehow not entirely unexpected, death of Christopher Reeve. Since his paralizing accident, Reeve has been in a number of close-call situations. Your Maximum Leader respected his positive outlook on his condition and his tireless activism for causes in which he believed. But, your Maximum Leader never expected him to live out a full life.

Excursus: A dear friend of your Maximum Leader who rides/jumps horses once mentioned to him that she’d see Christopher Reeve jump horses at different meets along the east coast. And she said that his form was categorically bad. He seemed to love the saddle, but did not seem to have the aptitude for it. She was surprised he hadn’t injured himself years before he actually did. While your Maximum Leader doesn’t recount this story to speak ill of the dead, he does wonder if Reeve’s celebrity didn’t somehow contribute to his injury? Didn’t anyone tell him his form was bad and that he was going to hurt himself if he didn’t change? Humm… We may never know.

But your Maximum Leader was genuinely saddened to learn of the death of Ken Caminiti. But, Caminiti’s death may be a cautionary tale for many atheletes. It shows how one can abuse their bodies and destroy themselves. It is hard to say from the various bits of coverage if Caminiti has started or tried to reform. But the damage was done. One can hope that someone will learn from Caminiti’s posthumous example and save themselves. Something Ken wasn’t able to do.

Requiescant in Pace

Carry on.

UPDATE: Your Maximum Leader, when he first started to write about Christopher Reeve’s death, wrote something that he later thought might cross a line. Dr. Rusty saw the line too. And crossed it. Drat! Now your Maximum Leader wishes he hadn’t deleted his draft…