My father used to give this sermon about time. “Time,” he would pronounce, was “the great equalizer. Each of us, no matter how rich or how poor, no matter how successful or how defeated, no matter how intelligent or how common; each of us is endowed by our maker with 24 hours a day, no more and no less.” Now there is a whole lot of Calvinism wrapped up in that statement and if you are not a Calvinist, I apologize. The Puritans would have loved it.
Fifty-five years is a long time by many measures. Time is relative, so 55 years will seem much longer to a 25-year-old than to a 75-year-old and in the course of human history it is just a drop in the bucket. The Ponte Vedra Recorder is now celebrating its 55th year. That is a long time for a newspaper. It is hard to imagine that 55 years ago, we landed on the moon and now 55 years later we are denying it happened. Time not only ages us as individuals and as a society, but it also changes our perspective. Fifty-five years before the Recorder began, World War I broke out in Europe. Fifty-five years before that, Abraham Lincoln was contemplating a run for the Presidency.
I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to write more than occasionally for this newspaper. It has been a privilege to be a small part of something that is so much greater than myself. Thanks to the internet, many of those articles now live on beyond their initial publication. Occasionally, someone, somewhere will find one of those old articles residing on the net and reach out to me. It is always both heartwarming and stunning.
As the Ponte Vedra Recorder begins its second 55 years, I like to imagine that the articles I write today will live on for future generations. So, if you are reading this on some future incarnation of the internet in the year 2079, I send you greetings from our past. And, if I may, I suggest that if you enjoyed this missive that you read another called “Prayers, Parenting, and Ponte Vedra Cross Country.” It is also about time and perseverance and is, in my opinion, one of the better things I have ever written. When I wrote that one, my son had just finished his freshman season as a runner. Now, as I write this, he has run his last race. My wife, my son, and I will all miss getting up at 4 a.m. to watch him run on Saturday mornings.
Time is inexorable. It passes whether we wish it to or not. Like a drunk stumbling down a sidewalk, our lives and our society progress. One certainty is that as we progress here in our idyllic little slice of heaven, the Ponte Vedra Recorder will be there with us every step of the way, recording our best of times.
Scott A. Grant is a local author and historian. By day he manages assets for people who trust him, with a keen understanding of the importance of time.
