Imagine if you will, Portland Trail Blazers fans, that the year is 2027. Everyone that you know from the current Blazers squad has moved on or retired except Head Coach Terry Stotts, who has earned “Coach for Life” honors due to consistent success over 15 seasons. Despite that, the Big Prize has eluded Stotts and his charges. The Blazers have often been thrice-removed bridesmaids, never a bride getting the ring.
You are musing on this, and the long rebuilding road ahead, while wandering an obscure beach near Waldport. Amid the bits of driftwood and broken sand dollars, you spy a bottle, half-buried.