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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Sikskiyou students embrace Middle School Fridays ... What are your plans for Super Bowl Sunday? ... Inner Peace: How can politics promote inner peace? ... Sikskiyou students embrace Middle School Fridays ... What are your plans for Super Bowl Sunday? ... Inner Peace: How can politics promote inner peace? ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: Requiem for an ultrarunner Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Feb. 5, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Feb. 5, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News I did not know Todd Ragsdale. Not personally, not in passing, not by reputation, not even through a friend. But there was something about his photograph lately in the local papers that made me really take notice. It was the man's face — the open and kind visage of a person who seemed at peace with the world — someone who knew who he was, what he cared about, and what mattered to him and to his community. In the background of the image, a landscape that would be instantly familiar to anyone in the Rogue Valley; foliage and stones reminiscent of Lithia Park and its immediate environs, which is where Todd's body was found on Jan. 30. In the Ashland/Talent community, shockwaves have surrounded his death. Anecdotes have been circulating among locals, and my original intuition that Todd was a fine and decent man whose life was disturbingly cut short has been affirmed. In a small community like ours, tragedy is often and rightly amplified; we are reminded of how a sudden departure can shake the fabric of a small town, even when the person was a stranger to some. The bizarre circumstance of the death of David Michael Grubbs a little over four years ago was one such example. In Todd's case, there is something inherently troubling about a person losing his life while out on the supposedly safe and familiar trails around our beautiful home. Sitting at my keyboard this morning, I have been touched by the stories I have read about his eccentric running ensembles (apparently, a kilt was the particular favorite) and his degree of commitment to local racing — one of the things that makes this town special is that there are certain citizens who always seem to show up, who are committed to civic pride and to their particular passion internal to the overall social working of our city. With Todd, multiple passions seem to have collided in a blend of civic pride, genuine kindness to his people and a sustained devotion to the art of running. It is not hard to sit around and watch other people make something of their lives. Emulation is one thing, action toward the betterment of the self and the community is another. For this columnist, Todd Ragsdale represents the integrity of a community where kinship and neighborliness are the most cohesive aspect of the ties that bind. Words are my very best tool, but I am not sufficiently articulate to best express my regret at not having known him. As such, I would like to end this column with some words from a poem of Robinson Jeffers — "I have ... undressed myself of laughable prides and infirmities, but not as a man undresses to creep into bed, but like an athlete stripping for the race. The delicate ravel of nerves that made me a measurer of certain fictions called good and evil; that made me contract with pain and expand with pleasure; fussily adjusted like a little electroscope: that's gone, it is true; (I never miss it; if the universe does, how easily replaced!) But all the rest is heightened, widened, set free. I once admired the beauty ... now I am part of the beauty. I wander in the air ... and flow in the ocean; touch you and Asia at the same moment; have a hand in the sunrises and the glow of this grass. I left the light precipitate of ashes to earth for a love-token." Ashland resident Jeffrey Gillespie is a Tidings columnist and freelance writer. Email him at [email protected] . DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Feb. 5, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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