It's hoped his life will be viewed in its totality, since there are few among us who are really qualified to throw the first stone. It's hoped McNair's family and the family of Sahel Kazemi will be able to find some peace in the wake of this horrible, complicated personal disaster.
What will the rest of us take away from it?
Maybe nothing, since most of us cannot identify with what it was like to be McNair. He was, by all accounts, a nice guy who loved football and played it with a toughness and intensity that few will ever match. He also was a very rich man who had realized most of his dreams at a very young age.
Plenty of other celebrities have found that fame and fortune buy more trouble than happiness, but McNair's death was more shocking than most because he seemed to have his feet so squarely on the ground.
He was a hero to millions of sports fans across the nation. He was a guy who appeared to have it all, and -- for whatever reason -- that wasn't enough when the cheering stopped and the adrenaline didn't. In other words, he was a flawed human, like everybody else.
I don't know which philosopher it was who first said this, but I think it's true:
The key to happiness is not having what you want. It's wanting what you have.
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peter.schmuck@baltsun.com
