Millions of people never even met Kobe Bryant. Yet the entire nation is in mourning. Why is it that we grieve the death of someone we never knew?

Absolutely, it is one of those moments in life. You'll never forget where you were when you heard the news that Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash.

Maybe you cried. I did.

Maybe it kept you awake last night...

..the death of a man who for all practical purposes was a stranger to you.

But here's the thing, though. Kobe wasn’t a stranger. He was in our homes, on our screens, and he was doing BIG things. Things we could all get behind. Things that made us feel we were part of something more.

I watched Kobe Bryant play at the Staples Center back in 2003. He and Shaquille O’Neal were the Greats. The Giants. (Little known fact: I attended LSU for one year in 1989-1990. I used to see Shaq around campus. I wasn't a huge basketball fan back then, and I really didn’t realize who or what I was witnessing at that time. But... there was just something about him that was almost unreal). It was the same when I saw Kobe play. They were superstars.

Maybe you’ve seen him play too. Maybe not. Doesn’t really matter, because -regardless- his death seems to have packed a real punch. Why is that?

Is it because Kobe was so larger-than-life, that we just assumed he was truly unstoppable, even in death? Maybe we hold some collective belief -some hope in this existence- that someone so Great really will live-on forever. But death is always the great equalizer. The one thing we can count on. Rich, poor. Well known or not. It’s coming for us all...

Maybe it’s that it wasn’t just him. It was his daughter Gianna, too. Maybe it’s those images of him coaching her, hugging her, kissing her head her forehead with such pride. Maybe it's the way he poured himself into her and focused on her potential as a player. Maybe it’s the parent in us who grieves, who thinks about GiGi's mother having lost both her husband and a daughter in one instant.

Or maybe it’s just that we all do what Kobe Bryant did that morning. What John and Keri Altobelli did. What Sarah Chester did. What Christina Mauser did. We all leave the house. The people we love leave the house. We live. We work. We breathe. And we’re all expected to return home safely that night. But Kobe didn’t return. GiGi didn’t. John, Keri, Sarah, Christina, Alyssa, Payton, and Ara Zobayan (the pilot) didn't return home. Maybe that’s why we cry. Because it could've just as easily been one of us yesterday...

Maybe it’s that he simply inspired us. Think about that. Let that soak in for a moment. If a person you don’t even know inspired you, think what you can do for another human being?

Kobe said it himself: "The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great at whatever they want to do."

Be that.

Take this tragedy, and inspire someone, somewhere, somehow today.

And squeeze the people you love just a little harder. Don't miss the chance to tell them you love them.

You never know when your time -or theirs- will come.