Transcribing On The Cutting Edge

Reading that young girl’s 1942 diary Monday, reminded me of how remiss I’ve been in transcribing all those diary notebooks Barbara White entrusted to me for eventual publication. So Tuesday I typed another few pages into the computer.

Understand please, that I do not actually know how to type—a strange confession for a writer, but I never learned how. And I’ve only been a free-lance writer for 30+ years.

To change Barbara’s handwritten text into computerease, I follow the lines of her hand-written text with the forefinger of my left hand, and punch computer keys with the forefinger of my right hand.

That’s the way it works as I straddle the cutting edge of high-tech electronic communications.

Ouch!

God made a serious mistake in judgment in laying this task on my heart. Had He known what He was doing, He’d at least have picked someone who knows how to type.

And I dare not outsource the task. The last time I let someone else take off manuscript pages to transcribe for me, the irreplaceable pages ended up in a dumpster. That experience spooked me. I’m leery; it makes me think I’m the only person who can be trusted with one-of-a-kind autograph pages.

Or maybe I’m just a control freak.

Whatever. The task is worth doing. Here is a section of text I transcribed yesterday:

August 6, 1981: I am walking through a shadowed valley and it is sometimes hard for me to see very clearly when the shadows are so dense. But this morning, He sent a ray of light.

Somewhere I read that God does not have a planned end for us, just a planned going—and for some reason I took that to mean He only cares about the kind of person we are—not the things like our jobs and so forth.

And I am so mixed and uncertain about work/job. But He does not ignore anything in our lives.

Who—and Whose—I am is more important than what I do to earn money, but He knows and cares about it all.

Nothing is too small for His concern.

And He loves me.