Gerry,
Please listen to me. Please consider what I am going to tell you.
You have so many people who want to help you. People who are working hard in your corner to clear your name and help you reclaim your spot in the running community.
Can you see this? Even with the organizers of your high school races and getting you involved with the national high school championships. Do you see those peoples caring and eagerness to help you?
There are two realizations and realities.
#1. You are the greatest prep distancer unner ever and one of the greatest American distance runners ever.
#2. You disappeared and now are coming out of exile.
For those who looked up to you those many years ago your disappearance was difficult to understand. You owe none of us an explaination. God knows life can be pressure filled and over whelming. We do not fully grasp the magnitude of why you left and what you were dealing with. You do.
But there is a son and an ex-wife who are still left with unanswered questions. You owe them an apology, explaination, and reasons for your disappearance and how and why you went about leaving. This can be accomplished through a simple phone call.
Make it personal, keep it private. From what I can tell your son just wants to know his father. You have a great opportunity here Gerry. You can be the father you never had or you can choose to repeat a cycle. This is a critical point in your career. You are at a precipe.
You can either show your true character by how you treat your family or ignore them and have all these good things go away and be further outcast and shunned by the running community.
There are those who are trying desperately to show you the life that you could have if you would only be a man of honor and integrity. Is this too much to ask? There is a race in seattle in your honor, can you believe there are young people who look up to you so much to put something like this on? And to think these same young people got the national high school championships to name the high school two-mile in your honor? Amazing!
Has your son done anything wrong to you? Has he ever disappointed you? Has he ever said anything badly towards you? If you saw him at the meet in seattle a simple hello, shake of the hand, I am sorry, can we talk would suffice. It is no one else business, but you do have unfinished family business.
Life is a two way street and I am sure your ex was not perfect and I am sure she contributed heavily to your leaving. I know the 80 games frustrated you, that life frustrated you, I know you fight against personal demons. But times have changed, this is the future, a simple call would do, you have to admit you owe her an apology. You owe no one else an apology or explaination than your son and the women whose life became very difficult when you left.
Times were tough but she did love you and she envisioned a life with you as a family. A family that over night was taken away from her. Can you see in a way how her dreams were shattered with your leaving? Of course she is scorned, the worst enemy in life is a scorned women.
Do you have any idea how difficult that must have been on her? To think all she wants is for you to talk with her privatly. You can do this! Call your son, invite him to come and watch your race in seattle. You have a choice to change and correct a few things.
Here is my promise, if you do the right thing you will be rewarded. If you persist in not doing the right thing your character will be revealed and you will be ostracized from the sport you love in such a profound way your name will forever be disgraced and looked upon with judgement and disdain. Whether you like this or not your story is public.
Stop with the justifications, it isn't that you should of left, it is how you left. This story isn't about a reporter, or angry journalists, or Jim Ryun. This story is about you correcting your problems with your family. Problems that are, THAT ARE tied and directly related to the reemergence of Gerry Lindgren into the running community.
Gerry, do the right thing. Show you have changed, show you have grown. The choice is yours. Make the right decision Gerry. Your sons phone number and address are in the phone book and online at worldpages.com.
Sincerly,
A long time friend