Stories of a Stoic
I was shocked to wake up and find out that Kobe Bryant had passed away. I was also shocked, then soon bothered, by the comments I found from goateed, sunburnt, Trumpists.
“One less rapist on the streets!”
“Not a real loss, he was a rapist!”
And other demeaning remarks. I haven’t followed basketball, nor did I know the man. I have no idea what he did or didn’t do. But that’s the point, it’s irrelevant to the mourning of him. There’s a concept from dialectics (echoed in Christianity) of duality. It’s the idea that two seemingly contradicting truths can operate simultaneously. Meaning a selfish person can do a charitable act, an honest man can lie, a person can love you and be toxic. It’s an important idea because it fractures the dichotomies of good and bad, right and wrong, etc that don’t accurately capture people. I’m not implying he’s a good person who did a bad thing, i’m saying a bad thing doesn’t render a “good” person a fraud. He’s a fraud if those moral truths are contradictory. But they’re not, and that’s where the people making those comments are lost.
The implication of those making derogatory comments is that if Bryant sexually assaulted that woman, he’s not worthy of being mourned. But a person being worthy of grief upon his or her death doesn’t predicate on moral evaluation anyhow, it predicates on whether the world’s natural reaction is grief. And here, it overwhelmingly is.
Those people also imply that if he were to have assaulted that woman, his death isn’t a tragedy. But that isn’t true either. A sport losing a hero, a wife losing a husband and daughter, four daughters losing a father AND sister, is tragic. A man dying at 41, alongside his 13 year old daughter is tragic. And nothing curbs that.
A stain on a man doesn’t constitute the man.
Again, I have no idea what he did or didn’t do. But it doesn’t matter. The idea that there’s reason to inhibit compassion is a brittle, mindless idea that actively hurts the world. And it’s a function of weakness and not strength.
As a boxer, I laud any athlete that’s championed their sport.
Rest in Peace Champion, Kobe and Gianna Bryant
