2022-02-03 01:57
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<p> Jepsen Hosea Drinkwater, "the last good man", lives almost as an agoraphobic, preferring little interaction except for his musings and "cat-in-tree" stories he writes for the "Redford Beagle" as the paper's principal writer and columnist, in a small town in outer suburbia of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a middling writer at best, and fancies himself as a "creative" writer, saving an archive of "sluggo lines" in his cell phone for later use - all of them common cliches of one sort or another ("go to bat for ya"). The very unique thing about "Jep" is his naive but firm faith, and self-security, taking scripture as a literal directive, "Pick up your cross daily and follow me", Jep carries along with him a 9-foot cross of dogwood ("authentic"), he poses a curious but respected and endearing figure in town. He is thought to be a stimming autistic, perhaps a profound prophet; quirky and benign, but devotional to truth at all costs. He is loved, and he inspires change in peoples' hearts. </p> <p> Amid the backdrop of his seeking Social Security disability because of the cross, ("Look at it. It's heavy as heck and takes me twice as long to do anything."), so he can quit the paper and "finally be a real writer and write the Great American Novel" (a term he thinks he coined). He is challenged by a cantankerous "Philly kid" of an editor who is trying to reform Jep into a real journalist, and a black widow wife who guessed wrong marrying an underpaid "pretend writer". While Jep's own notoriety in town and the Third Prognosticarian Church turns his wife and pastor against him - looking to capitalize on life insurance - with three of their friends joining just for the cash - the old insurance guy because of libidinous interest in the siren wife of Jep. They hire a hitman for the dirty deed. </p> <p> While the mayoral race is underway, Jep is cajoled and persuaded - appealing to his sense of justice and righteousness - to run against the mayor, after the mayor invited him to speak as keynote at his newest campaign dinner, UNBEKNOWNST to Jep... Since Jep can only speak TRUTH, it did not go well for the bullying corrupt mayor, and the town started encouraging Jep to join the race. The mayor's campaign manager sought a hitman to resolve the populist challenger, they contacted a serious bad-guy, coincidentally the SAME hitman hired by Jep's wife and her associates. We find the hitman is not all he is cracked up to be either. It is a hilarious story that serves as a metaphor to our society and to goodness and its very disappearance; and its centerpiece is in this special, simple, and reverent man: </p> <p> "…it's just that whatever I am to people, it only means something to those who will embrace it. You can't make everyone eat their broccoli." ~ Jep </p>
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