The word outlasts the throne
Kings fall, tyrants pass, and hope endures in the prophets’ vision of God’s story.
Illustration by Tallulah Fontaine
Change over time is not just a truism for historians. It is a fact of life, no matter who we are. Nothing stays the same, all good things come to an end—for great athletes, for powerful rulers, for you and me.
It has always been the case that things change, strength gives way, passions attenuate. When it comes to this immutable fact of life, none of us is immune. The memory of watching greats like Serena Williams and Roger Federer in real time will inevitably fade in years to come. Video replays will not do justice to the passing of an era.
A week after Muhammad Ali lost to Leon Spinks in 1978, Lance Morrow wrote in Time magazine: “It becomes a parable: those few athletes who are gifted with a certain magic become proof of the splendors that the body can achieve—the feats of grace, strength, speed, skill, stamina. But the athlete’s half-life is so short; his decline and failure become a model of the mortality in everyone.”
