‘I’m super proud of him’: father of teen lifeguard recounts dramatic ocean rescue; The Guardian, July 29, 2026

 Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Guardian; ‘I’m super proud of him’: father of teen lifeguard recounts dramatic ocean rescue

"A rookie, teenage California lifeguard who saved a young boy from drowning amid massive waves – while a bystander recorded dramatic video – has spent his whole life preparing for such a moment, according to his father.

Ryder Williams, 16, said he refused to let go of the child because he knew the boy would almost certainly die if he did, the lifeguard’s father, Shane, recounted on Tuesday, three days after the pulse-pounding rescue.

“He told me: ‘I just was not going to let that happen,’” Shane Williams said during a telephone interview. “I almost started crying because how determined he was to save that boy’s life makes me so proud.”

Shane Williams’s comments lent a unique perspective to a rescue off Seabright beach in Santa Cruz that local authorities say unfolded when a child lost his balance, got knocked down by a wave and was swept into the Pacific Ocean about 15 yards offshore on Saturday afternoon.

An on-duty, California state parks lifeguard who was later identified as Ryder saw the boy in distress and ran to help him, officials said in a statement."

Have Yourself a Merry Little 2017; New York Times, 12/24/16

Bruce Handy, New York Times; Have Yourself a Merry Little 2017:

"The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has used the original lyrics before, including on the 2015 album “Big Band Holidays,” so it’s not as if someone fished them out of the trunk 72 years later to make a tart postelection point. I’m also well aware that our current challenges pale in comparison to fighting a world war with civilization in the balance. Let’s say we are somewhere on a continuum between that and facing a move from St. Louis to New York. Still, I have to confess the “it may be your last” line captured my near-apocalyptic mood — and maybe yours as well.

But the lyric that moved me to tears is the line that follows “If the fates allow” (and remained in Martin’s final lyrics):

Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

How prosaic, even homely as pre-rock era songwriting goes, and yet how perfect. Muddling through, somehow, may not sound particularly inspirational, but perseverance is often the best option at hand, when just moving forward, one inch or foot or yard at a time, can be a kind of heroism. At least that’s how it struck me listening to Ms. Russell, her deeply felt performance offering a subdued and cleareyed but still genuine optimism...

In “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is the catalyst for a happy ending: Tootie’s backyard rampage prompts her father to change his mind about the move, and we cut to a dazzling climax at the 1904 World’s Fair, electric lights and handsome beaus suggesting a fine future for all. Happy endings seem a little more remote in 2016 — miles away, as they say, or at least as distant as the next election. In the meantime, we muddle through. It’s a start."