Jimmy’s writing career ends today with his testament. He prefaced it with the following:
“The next words you read will be those of James H. Collins, and not ‘as told to,’ although you might say ghost-written.”
I AM DEAD.
How can I say that?
Do you remember an old, old story? I shall tell you just the beginning of it: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was God....” That’s enough for you to see what I mean.
It is by the word that I can say that.
Not by the spoken word. I cannot say to you by the spoken word, “I am dead.”
But there is not only the spoken word. There is also the written word. It has different dimensions in space and time.
It is by the written word that I can say to you, “I am dead.”
But there is not only the spoken and the written word. There is also the formless, unbreathed word of mood and dream and passion. This is the word that must have been the spirit of God that brooded over the face of the deep in the beginning. It is the word of life and death.