The especially unwelcome death of Jonah Lomu aged 40 is an awesome human moment for followers of sport. Rugby is a fundamentally physical team sport in which, at its elite level, man mountains clash in frightening contests of strength, power and speed so that you know that to be challenged by two of them would be the downfall of anyone.
What Jonah showed when he burst into elite international rugby was that one man could on occasion make the going tough for eight others - singlehandedly. He was simply a physical peak of human power, a man among boys when those boys were by normal standards themselves men among boys.
If anyone needs to be reminded of the power of death, Remembrance Week, Paris and Jonah in their three different ways have revealed it. Many gallant memories are recorded, many tributes paid, in the case of the Paris attack people are sometimes demonstrating astonishing rejection of bitterness against the planners of the evil. As so often in a large corner of Rock culture the Eagles of Death Metal Band gave an appearance of embracing death with their motifs and titles. Until they ran from it off stage.
But real death? There is nothing we can do. We cannot stop it, we cannot forgive it, we cannot live with it, we cannot deny it, we cannot move on away from it, we cannot win over it, we cannot play with it, we cannot get past it.
We need(ed) help.
