The Mighty Pen

I am amazed sometimes how much life can be crammed into a week. Work, Bible study, rehearsals for the Christmas play at church, phone calls and emails with the lawyers involved in Rick’s case, lunch meetings about the condition of today’s prison system, private investigating assignments… I’d love some down time but need to be at an architectural committee meeting first thing this morning. I’m going to make plans to go to Monterrey soon and spend some time on Cannery Row. I don’t think I’ll have time to visit historic Monterrey for a few months but I can dream. I’ve been working on a book about women outlaws of the Mid-West and focusing on a lady named Victoria Woodhull. When she was arrested in 1872 for obscenity, she was one of the most notorious female outlaws at the time. And what was considered obscene at that time consisted of Woodhull sharing with readers of her newspaper the notion of “free love.” She believed women should be able to select her own lovers – such a controversial idea in the late eighteen hundreds. A few times during the day I check to see how many people have visited my website. I average about 65 visitors a day. Yesterday however I had 209 visits. I was very excited until I did a check and found out the hits came from one location in Lees Summit, Missouri. The user is a repeat visitor to the site who works at a hospital. I guess it’s to be expected. As Voltaire once said, “Fear follows crime and is its punishment.” That fear will only intensive as the year progresses. I’ve been waiting a long time for justice to be served – even longer to write about it. The Plea will be the full story of what happened to Rick and I’m more anxious to write about that than I’ve been about writing anything in a long time. It almost seems as though the desire to write at all was leading to this pivotal point. Amazing how God works.