Footprints

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on May 7, 2008

Footprints Vanish With the Tide

“Though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they do not go gentle into that good night.” – Dylan Thomas

Some people tend to cling to the routine, the familiar. They enjoy the “what is” so much that they are not willing to let go of it. Whole industries have evolved to cater to these desires. Fantasy sports camps for aging ex-athletes who are attempting to relive the glory of their youth is an example of such an endeavor. Another is the toupee and hair replacement business. Clinging to the past, like a preschool child who desires to hear the same story for the one hundredth time, we crave the known and routine over the indefinite.

Perhaps the saddest example is the aging professional athlete coming back for one more attempt at greatness. The over-the-hill ex-champion boxer coming out of retirement for one last fight has become the clichéd but true saga of our once esteemed hero exposed to the world as a mere mortal. It is the rare athlete who recognizes when his skills are beginning to diminish and accepts that his career is coming to an end. We often celebrate this wisdom with words like “He got out at just the right time.”

I have always been a proponent of sunset laws. There are times when something makes sense for a while, and then it makes sense for it to end. So it is for all things. Impermanence is a fact of this life. Change will eventually come about.

After more than two hundred weekly columns, I find that I have little else to add of any merit to the general good. With the understanding that my biases and the general causes that I champion have now been well documented in this newspaper, I think this space would be better served with some new insight. Not wishing to be redundant again, it is best that I now step away from writing this weekly column.

Looking back on the past five years, I am grateful for the opportunity given me each week by the Zionsville Times Sentinel to express my little observations, stories, exaggerations and sermons. The newspaper has been very generous with the latitude I have been given. I wish to thank my editors for their time and understanding. To all of my readers who have taken the time to write me both praise and condemnation, I also thank you for your concern. To readers with whom I have touched a common thought or observation, thank you for giving me a bit of your time too.

I will not miss the Thursday afternoon deadlines, or the weeks where I am racking my brain in hopes of coming up a topic for my column. I will probably look back fondly at the times when I would open my email after writing a controversial column and read five or six emails from irate readers who happened to be on the wrong side of the issue. I will also miss the emails from readers who liked something that I wrote and shared with me their kind words. Surely there will be times when something will happen and I will have something to say about it, but will no longer have a venue to share my thoughts. Of course there are positives and negatives about most change. When the positives far outweigh the negatives, it is time to make that change. That time is now.

Finally, I hope I have not hung on too long. I hope to hear, “He got out at the right time.” All of this talk about running, my youth, ultra-marathons, coaching, physical education, shoes, no shoes, characters I’ve met, people I find inspiring, nature, rowing, thinking, not thinking, my family and friends, I guess I’ve been a little over the top.

Enough said!

Budd Glassberg is a 24 year resident of Zionsville who works and volunteers in the community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.