And crouching in his khakis, he placed his arms underneath
the man’s head and legs, careful not to hurt him, and lifted
him up, pulling the damp, dirty man close to his chest and
carrying him inside where he could receive proper care.
After hearing that story, I never again questioned why Ed
was at the mission. I knew. He was there because he was
called.
Hemingway’s Regret and
Niggle’s Redemption
In 1961, the writer A. E. Hotchner went to see his good
friend Ernest Hemingway in an honest attempt to save his
life. Hotchner was an editor, novelist, and one of
Hemingway’s biographers. After hearing Hemingway
repeatedly complain about everything from taxes to his
clothes, Hotch asked a simple question of his friend: “Papa,
why do you want to kill yourself?”
The author responded, “What do you think happens to a
man going on sixty-two when he realizes that he can never
write the books and stories he promised himself? Or do any
of the other things he promised himself in the good days?”
Hotch encouraged Hemingway that he still had great
work in him and that he had written a beautiful book about
Paris (which would later become A Moveable Feast), but