Calling Casper and Crown

Forget about Jasper, I'm going with Casper the friendly ghost writer. I don't need Jasper imitating me when I can do a damn fine job of imitating myself. You should see me practicing in the mirror every morning. God I look like myself.

Jasper is superfluous. I don't need his artificial intelligence.

I'm alive and I can't think of a better way to spend my time than to figure out what the hell I'm thinking and capturing those thoughts with words that stay.

Like these for instance.

Here's the deal though.

I'm not gonna outlive my words. Words that stay continue to live as long as somebody will read them.

So, I'm gonna turn all my words over to Casper and I advise all of you to do the same.

Make room for Casper, Jasper.

Give him everything that I got which I've given to you.

The more thoughts that "I" make stay with words, the better Casper will be able to imitate me when I'm gone.

My good friend Johnny Crown passed away in 2022. Crown was a loquacious and hilarious man, who mixed in a lot of wisdom with his insights and forecasts. Unfortunately, he didn't write very much.

Throughout the course of my life, wherever we were located, I always found time to "Call Crown" and discuss whatever situation I was confronting. Usually, it was about sports or gambling but towards the end, it was mostly about our health and the different procedures Crown confronted as his body was breaking down.

I called Crown for the final time in September.  We had no idea this would be the last phone call but it was a distinct possibilty. His last words to me were "We'll see each other again." He was headed in for yet another "procedure" and I told him about the mystery polyp that was causing me concern. He listened patiently and asrured me that whatever I chose would be the right move.

He didn't make it to his scheduled procedure. His body had enough of that cutting. "Ya know Ice, once they start cutting on ya, they never stop."

This all leads back to Caper and the perpetuity of artifical intelligence.

If Crown or my mother or father had written as much as I've written and left behind all those words that stay, I could dial up Casper and request an opinion or a story written in the style of Johnny Crown or Vin or Red.

I'm having some indecision at the moment as to what to do with the mystery polyp. The more I read about the surgery, the scarier it gets. The pain management...the liquid diet....the exhaustion....the weeks of recovery. Am I doing the right thing? I don't have any symptoms and I'm feeling great. Still, the polyp has been discovered if not yet identified.

I wish I could go to Casper now and get an opinion on what to do in the words and style of Johnny Crown. In other words, calling Crown from beyond the grave.

That's impossible of course. Only through prayer and concentration can I communicate with deceased loved ones to whom I always looked for guidance.

This won't be true for my children and their children. Casper will have absorbed all of my words, including these, and will be able to synthesize them into stories, opinions, answers and questions.

Words that stay, folks.

Capture them while you can and let Casper do the rest. 

Your words are your legacy.