Are All Writers Nuts?

First in local news: About dawn yesterday a man dressed in an animal costume broke into a historic lighthouse just a few miles south of my home. He barricaded the door then climbed the lighthouse circular stairway (219 stairs) up to the catwalk, 165 feet above the ground. Then he climbed over the lantern and up onto the cupola dome. Hanging from the flagpole up there he unfurled two signs. These signs promoted a book he had written.

Yes, he was a writer wanting to advertise his book.

Cops arrested him for breaking into the historic monument and he’s in jail today.

No permanent damage was done to the lighthouse which was built in 1871.

Oh, the animal costume?

Of course, he dressed up as a cat, what else.

I’ve decided not to mention the author’s name of the title of his book but if you want to search Google for it, try the key word, asshole.

Speaking of history writers: my friend Wes and I went out to breakfast yesterday. Most of our conversation revolved around two things, publishing a history Wes’ great-great-grandfather wrote, and deathbed conversion.

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about a dying atheist being cared for by a group of volunteers from a local church? Wes tells me the man became a Christian shortly before his death this weekend.

I have mixed feelings about such things.

On one hand I realize that Christ is able to save to the uttermost. To a thief nailed to the cross beside Him, Jesus said, “Today, shall you be with me in paradise.”

Obviously, when you realize that Hey, my parachute didn’t open, is not the best time to start praying. And, come right down to it, every bed we lie on is a deathbed, we are all dying, fast or slow. So I think last minute conversion is possible, but not smart.

On the other hand, I’m inclined to agree with Methodist founder John Wesley who told a crowd, “You can’t live a goat and die a lamb”.

But whatever, a number of people are rejoicing because the dying atheist made a commitment to Christ in his last extremity.

Concerning the life history of Wes’s ancestor: Joseph Piram King died in 1948 just before his hundredth birthday. Bedridden from age he called on his daughter Theodocia Ithiel Grant to write his memories as he dictated. She wrote out the old man’s words with a pencil in a school composition book. Years ago Wes used a manual typewriter to transcribe her jottings.

These papers are important to Wes as part of his family heritage. I think this manuscript is worth saving for its historic content and I want to preserve it. Local history buffs and researchers will find it fascinating but I doubt if anyone else will buy a copy.

So, this week I’m scanning in the typescript into my computer and formatting it into a small book. This is a pain because the pages have many crinkles that scan in as symbols and it’s a mess to clean up…

And although the manuscript contains many redundancies, spelling and grammatical errors, Wes insists that it be presented verbatim with no editing at all.

He’s adamant about this.

This vexes me because I see where the manuscript can be cleaned up and made more readable and understandable…. I care about such things… but I also don’t care. It’s not my baby, I’m just helping.

The editor says, “How many writers does it take to change a light bulb?”

The writer says “I ain’t changing a damn thing!”

Since I’m willing to help with this history book project but I’m not emotionally tied to it. — When it comes time to promote the book, if you see some guy in a cat costume on top of a lighthouse waving a sign– that’ll be Wes.