The parallels between Taylor and Henry are uncanny. Both men had rocky starts to their introduction to the world. Taylor was a young man who seemed to always be at the wrong place at the wrong time and his growing pains seem to always get the best of him, be it a fracas on the streets of Dade County or allegedly spitting on an opponent on the football field. As for Henry, his troubles were a bit more public, dating back to his transgressions at WVU. However, just as both men seemed primed to right the ship, they met their untimely demise. It was as if someone snipped the film of their life movie just before it got to the good part, like watching Million Dollar Baby but fast forwarding to the end after the first half hour.
Much like Taylor, the death of Henry will be felt over the next week or two and then will vanish into thin air and be replaced by the next headline. After all, the country is fully immersed in Tiger Fever and the death of a young, up-and-coming athlete with a troubled past, while tragic, tends to not stick in the consciousness of the American public for very long.
We'll probably never know why Chris Henry was thundering away at the back window of his pickup while his fiance sped angrily down the road and, perhaps, we don't deserve to know. The irony of living in an age of Twitter, Facebook, and other internet devices that bring us close to our heroes is that, even with all this newfound access, we still never truly know these people. The only connection I have with Chris Henry was that he, much like Taylor, was a guy around my age who enjoyed some of the same things I did and is now gone far too soon. It's like the band geek trying to relate to the star quarterback. You don't have much in common beyond the basics.
Every generation has their celebrity tragedy that stands as a landmark in their lives. For some of the older folks, it's the Kennedys or Martin Luther King Jr or John Lennon. For people of me and Gabe's age bracket, it's Kurt Cobain or Biggie and 2Pac or maybe even Michael Jackson. Chris Henry isn't a landmark death, but he serves as a cautionary tale that life on this planet, whether unexpectedly cut short or not, is entirely too brief. It always amazed me that, even though young people come and go every day in America, it always takes the death of people like Henry or Taylor or a Len Bias to make others reassess just how fortunate they are to still be alive. It's as if one man's death is another man's intervention.
So to all the people out there who are at their wit's end standing in line to finish their Christmas shopping, be thankful for every day you have here with your family, because I'm sure if Chris Henry had another chance, that would be the one thing he'd want for Christmas.
R.I.P. Chris Henry.....He'd live to be in our shoes while we'd die to live in his.
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