Mind Over Matter, and Why it Really Mattered to One Homeless Man.....

A couple of years ago a friend of mentioned to me that the publishing industry would go to great lengths to perpetuate and air a good story. I shot back – How do you define a ‘good story?’ We went back and forth jockeying for position trying to substantiate one idea over the other. I eventually gave up the ghost and realized that he had a point, especially when I gave it much in-depth thought. Newspapers, magazines, and the people who publish books only need the one hook, or the very entity that would give them a grasp on the public’s sensibilities. And this is where New York City’s premiere newspaper comes to mind.

The New York Times can be much to many, and may hold less for others, but for me I always find interesting tidbits of knowledge, satire and literary lore. Perusing it one day I came across the title, 'A Writer Driven By the Streets' and subtitled, 'The Cadillac Man’, who has been homeless in Queens for about a decade, has his eyes on a book deal'. You may remember this story. A man homeless who endeavors to have a book published, and with an Agent, no less who was blessed with taking his writing to the next level! How interesting and intriguing to say the least. But a book deal...sounds crazy, huh?

”The publishing industry will go to great lengths to air a good story”. Here we go again! This is a man without a place to live, persisting on anything he can get his hands on, and one certainly disdained by those who pretend not to see him. So enterprising was he, that Esquire Magazine published parts of his memoirs, and had the temerity of mind to secure him an agent...and not just any agent. Mr. Cadillac Man's agent represents literary stars like the erstwhile Miami Herald writer/reporter, and current novelist Carl Hiaasen and Toni Morrison.

But the most poignant part of this story for me is the fact that an ordinary situation extrapolated into an extraordinary occurrence. It proved my friends' point exactly about how publishing executives would go to any lengths for a blockbuster, and a story that will entice readers to buy, buy, and buy more! Albeit, life on the streets are full of stories and adventures that hold imagery and real-life collages, each with individualistic meaning to staying alive – to get a book published! It reminds you that there IS a God above, for sure.