The Steve Prefontaine Heart Break

You want your heart broken as an Oregonian? Drive Highway 101 past the wondrous Steve Prefontaine mural in Coos Bay, the rugged area on the Southern Oregon Coast where he grew up. Drive past it slowly on a rainy morning in late May, and see two young men about Pre’s age when he was becoming an American distance running legend and a modern Oregon folk hero, see them asleep or passed out in sleeping bags, on concrete, in a tiny public plaza with potted flowers, benches and picnic tables, surrounded by their scattered possessions. They rest at the base of a 40-foot high triptych mural of the greatest sports figure in Oregon history, a god, a colossus, a myth, who came to life and pumped psychic corpuscles into all our bodies and minds for those of us who knew his story.

The splayed and frayed young men may or may not have read an immortal quote from Pre that adorns the mural: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

The gift. Your unique gift.

Yes, that will break your Oregon heart because you can’t comprehend how these two young men could end up sleeping or passed out in Pre’s hometown, on this particular public space honoring the smallish son of a logger who competed with indomitable fire, and at the age of 24 drove his sports car drunk into a giant Eugene rock and died in 1975.

What about these two young men? What are their gifts to the world? Is it too late for them to discover their gifts? Have they read the quote? Surely, they have. It’s three feet high! Can Pre still inspire young people with his story, his words, his relentless running, the way he attacked a race?

These young men wasted underneath this mural is the most awful Oregon juxtaposition you have ever seen, and you will never get it out of your mind. Nor do you want to. There is something to be learned from it and the next time you pass through Coos Bay, you will seek it out. You sense this effort might lead to the key of unlocking your understanding of the New American Diaspora.