useful uselessness

In upstate New York, Phillip Patterson is wrapping up a years-long project -- copying by hand the entire  Bible.

Patterson, 63, might seem like an unlikely scribe for the King James version of the Bible. Tall and bald with a hearty laugh, the retired interior designer is neither monkish nor zealous. He goes to church but has never been particularly religious.

And it makes him happy.

He doesn't seem to want to sell his achievement or experience to anyone else.

That's a relief.

But it makes me happy when someone else is happy.

Useful uselessness, perhaps.