this just makes me so happy, that it's all ok. It's mundane magic - but mundane is such a lowly word that minimizes which is not what I want to convey so instead after looking in the thesaurus I now say, reading your divine day-to-day details that are so comforting, or your happy hum-drum happenings that are so human, I also yearn to simply smell the hydrangeas. Don't get your own apartment and keep ordering a good wine! I think disarray can be good for the soul. Blessings.
Garrison, Thanks for the thoughts. As one gets older, we tend to see that many things in life are actually not that important. A lot of what goes on in life is just busy work; people are busy being busy.
Take American foreign/defense policy. We don't seem to learn anything. First we went into Vietnam to support what some said was a corrupt self serving government (although they used the magic words: "anti communist"); that ended badly after about twenty years.
Then we had a try at Iraq in 2003 and that created "disarray" and turned Iraq into a shambles.
Then we went to Afghanistan. This week it was reported that many citizens of Afghanistan consider the U. S. backed government of their country to be corrupt.
Why do so many governments which our country supports turnout to be corrupt?
In all three countries we seemed to know very little about the people and culture/religion/politics of said country. We expend trillions of dollars and the lives of countless soldiers and civilians, but don't seem to know what we are doing. What did all of this expenditure of lives and resources accomplish? Other than help the military industrial complex.
On the topic of age, I like being old and generally like staying at home. We live in the backwoods of rural Alabama so when Covid came along it actually made little difference in the way we live. Thank God for the internet.
So enjoyable to see you gently applying the brakes to a life well lived in order to become a life better lived. You make me chuckle the way you slide from one seemingly humdrum aspect of life to another all the while infusing them with new meaning and a new spirit. Now quit reading this humdrum note and go make your lovely wife a pot of Sumatra coffee. As always, she is right that Hills Brothers sucks.
In Odense, birthplace of my favorite writer and home to a wonderful new museum in his honor. I recorded Carl Nielsen's "Moderen", a lavish cantata he wrote to celebrate the 1920 "genforening" (the return of the land Bismarck took in 1864). Much beautiful (and previously unrecorded) music to discover here - I will send you a copy as belated fødseldagsgave. Kong Christian stod ved højen mast!
From out of the blue comes an email announcing Garrison Keilor is back! What a wonderful way to start the day! I didn’t know the details of his sudden absence from NPR, and right now I don’t care to know them, but I am willing to place my faith that things have now been all sorted out and Garrison is back on the scene. Welcome back, Garrison, it’s good to read your voice once more, and have you re-ignite the lamp with your followers. Please, do keep in touch!
I'm a writer now, Ralph. Radio went to podcasts and the idea of podding is odd to me. Everything is streaming now, nothing is live except when the president gives an address, so I sit here at my desk and tap tap tap.
Hi Garrison! I think I know an author you might enjoy. Fredrik Backman. I have read everything he's written (his English translators Henning Koch and Neil Smith deserve mention, too - wonderful work!) If you haven't read A Man Called Ove, start there, and then I would suggest Anxious People, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and Britt Marie Was Here. I think you'll feel a kinship with his humor and heart. Happy reading and please, keep writing! Much affection, Lori a Librarian
Not a "new" novelist (in fact, he is no longer alive in person--and that's not redundant), but one whose novels and two memoirs I've been enchanted by: Ivan Doig. Have you read anything of his? They are mostly set in Montana, in the days of hard physical work by families. They are beautifully written...and sometimes funny, as a bonus.
You have gotten kind of mellow in the last few posts. I enjoy both the sentimental Garrulous Keillor and the sarcastic Grouchy Keillor. I wrote this poem for your Trump-supporting, bird-watching, customer-supporting fans and readers a couple of weeks ago. Since I am usually in agreement with you, this poem is at least as much about me as you:
I once babysat for some even younger kids whose parents went to an Angels' game and returned with a baseball signed by Rod Carew. Belatedly, I wish you a happy birthday, patron saint of American poets and our new Mark Twain. Your words are treasured every single day.
I like your list of accomplishments! I've used carbon paper (and a rotary dial telephone). I was there in Dodger Stadium when Don Drysdale pitched his third consecutive no-hitter - it was utterly boring except for the bits of floating paper cups in the lights! Another time, I yelled to Hank Aaron "Hit A Homer!" which he promptly did - and tied the Babe's record of 40 home runs. I was Baptized with total immersion by a Ukrainian Pentecostal minister in a local park (he didn't accept my childhood Methodist baptism, when water had been sprinkled on my head). Does that qualify me as a cultural treasure, too?
Actually, it's possible that most of us heading into the eighties are "cultural treasures" in one way or another! I had a coworker, Libby, who was very close to my age. Once I reminisced about going to the shoe store, trying on a new pair of shoes, standing with our feet in an x-ray machine, and seeing the bones of our feet inside the shoes in a fluorescent green. "Oh!," Libby commented. "My grandmother told me about that!"
Some of us are more willing to speak of aging than others! I really appreciate your frankness about your experiences. I'm sure many of us can relate with you on scores of scores! Viva Longevity!
I too was an English major and I too had a birthday last week- 72. The great thing about growing old, as Princess Alice on the Crown told her brother Mountbatten shortly before he got blown up by Irish nationalists, "The great thing about being old is that whatever happens isn't our problem." The Irish Nationalists apparently weren't in agreement with that sentiment. And thanks for the TS Elitot updated. I can live without TS, but not without Chuck.
Aging is a majesty we Americans don't seem to appreciate. We claim to be enlightened about the world, yet we are dreadfully ignorant about the beauty of growing older, namely the sheer joy of irrelevance you so cannily write about. Who has time for Twitter and Facebook? Why reduce our wisdom to a hashtag, when enjoying the "life of the mind" is infinitely more enjoyable? Irrelevance is the greatest liberation a human can aspire to. Thank you for reminding us of its glories.
this just makes me so happy, that it's all ok. It's mundane magic - but mundane is such a lowly word that minimizes which is not what I want to convey so instead after looking in the thesaurus I now say, reading your divine day-to-day details that are so comforting, or your happy hum-drum happenings that are so human, I also yearn to simply smell the hydrangeas. Don't get your own apartment and keep ordering a good wine! I think disarray can be good for the soul. Blessings.
Garrison, Thanks for the thoughts. As one gets older, we tend to see that many things in life are actually not that important. A lot of what goes on in life is just busy work; people are busy being busy.
Take American foreign/defense policy. We don't seem to learn anything. First we went into Vietnam to support what some said was a corrupt self serving government (although they used the magic words: "anti communist"); that ended badly after about twenty years.
Then we had a try at Iraq in 2003 and that created "disarray" and turned Iraq into a shambles.
Then we went to Afghanistan. This week it was reported that many citizens of Afghanistan consider the U. S. backed government of their country to be corrupt.
Why do so many governments which our country supports turnout to be corrupt?
In all three countries we seemed to know very little about the people and culture/religion/politics of said country. We expend trillions of dollars and the lives of countless soldiers and civilians, but don't seem to know what we are doing. What did all of this expenditure of lives and resources accomplish? Other than help the military industrial complex.
On the topic of age, I like being old and generally like staying at home. We live in the backwoods of rural Alabama so when Covid came along it actually made little difference in the way we live. Thank God for the internet.
Best wishes and happy life to all.
So enjoyable to see you gently applying the brakes to a life well lived in order to become a life better lived. You make me chuckle the way you slide from one seemingly humdrum aspect of life to another all the while infusing them with new meaning and a new spirit. Now quit reading this humdrum note and go make your lovely wife a pot of Sumatra coffee. As always, she is right that Hills Brothers sucks.
T. S. Eliot Rock is inspired.
God fødselsdag, Garrison. I had always hoped to do a second opera with you...
Tusind tak, Maestro. Are you in Copenhagen?
In Odense, birthplace of my favorite writer and home to a wonderful new museum in his honor. I recorded Carl Nielsen's "Moderen", a lavish cantata he wrote to celebrate the 1920 "genforening" (the return of the land Bismarck took in 1864). Much beautiful (and previously unrecorded) music to discover here - I will send you a copy as belated fødseldagsgave. Kong Christian stod ved højen mast!
From out of the blue comes an email announcing Garrison Keilor is back! What a wonderful way to start the day! I didn’t know the details of his sudden absence from NPR, and right now I don’t care to know them, but I am willing to place my faith that things have now been all sorted out and Garrison is back on the scene. Welcome back, Garrison, it’s good to read your voice once more, and have you re-ignite the lamp with your followers. Please, do keep in touch!
I'm a writer now, Ralph. Radio went to podcasts and the idea of podding is odd to me. Everything is streaming now, nothing is live except when the president gives an address, so I sit here at my desk and tap tap tap.
Happy Belated Birthday Garrison. For me, you truly are a “ray of sunshine every day”. I read every poem aloud. I always thank you for it.
Give us "dis" day...disarray, dysfunctional (tribal democracy), disappointment. Loved all of it. Thanks.
Hi Garrison! I think I know an author you might enjoy. Fredrik Backman. I have read everything he's written (his English translators Henning Koch and Neil Smith deserve mention, too - wonderful work!) If you haven't read A Man Called Ove, start there, and then I would suggest Anxious People, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and Britt Marie Was Here. I think you'll feel a kinship with his humor and heart. Happy reading and please, keep writing! Much affection, Lori a Librarian
I didn't care for Anxious People, but I really enjoyed My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry.
Not a "new" novelist (in fact, he is no longer alive in person--and that's not redundant), but one whose novels and two memoirs I've been enchanted by: Ivan Doig. Have you read anything of his? They are mostly set in Montana, in the days of hard physical work by families. They are beautifully written...and sometimes funny, as a bonus.
You have gotten kind of mellow in the last few posts. I enjoy both the sentimental Garrulous Keillor and the sarcastic Grouchy Keillor. I wrote this poem for your Trump-supporting, bird-watching, customer-supporting fans and readers a couple of weeks ago. Since I am usually in agreement with you, this poem is at least as much about me as you:
If I Did Not Have You: https://thebickerstaffblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/if-i-did-not-have-you.html
More specific to your topic:
Living in Disarray
Give me my life of disarray;
I’ll find something to do today.
I need not sort and rearrange
To place my leavings back in range.
All will later be there to find
If and when a need comes to mind.
It’s not lost, just a mite misplaced;
Looking now would just be a waste.
Although things might be briefly found,
They would return when they’re set down.
While I search for this, I’ll see that,
And mentally I’ll switch tit for tat.
So learn to live in disarray;
It‘s easier to rest that way.
Use what comes to your mind or hand
If it doesn’t fit, change what you planned.
I once babysat for some even younger kids whose parents went to an Angels' game and returned with a baseball signed by Rod Carew. Belatedly, I wish you a happy birthday, patron saint of American poets and our new Mark Twain. Your words are treasured every single day.
I like your list of accomplishments! I've used carbon paper (and a rotary dial telephone). I was there in Dodger Stadium when Don Drysdale pitched his third consecutive no-hitter - it was utterly boring except for the bits of floating paper cups in the lights! Another time, I yelled to Hank Aaron "Hit A Homer!" which he promptly did - and tied the Babe's record of 40 home runs. I was Baptized with total immersion by a Ukrainian Pentecostal minister in a local park (he didn't accept my childhood Methodist baptism, when water had been sprinkled on my head). Does that qualify me as a cultural treasure, too?
Actually, it's possible that most of us heading into the eighties are "cultural treasures" in one way or another! I had a coworker, Libby, who was very close to my age. Once I reminisced about going to the shoe store, trying on a new pair of shoes, standing with our feet in an x-ray machine, and seeing the bones of our feet inside the shoes in a fluorescent green. "Oh!," Libby commented. "My grandmother told me about that!"
Some of us are more willing to speak of aging than others! I really appreciate your frankness about your experiences. I'm sure many of us can relate with you on scores of scores! Viva Longevity!
I too was an English major and I too had a birthday last week- 72. The great thing about growing old, as Princess Alice on the Crown told her brother Mountbatten shortly before he got blown up by Irish nationalists, "The great thing about being old is that whatever happens isn't our problem." The Irish Nationalists apparently weren't in agreement with that sentiment. And thanks for the TS Elitot updated. I can live without TS, but not without Chuck.
Aging is a majesty we Americans don't seem to appreciate. We claim to be enlightened about the world, yet we are dreadfully ignorant about the beauty of growing older, namely the sheer joy of irrelevance you so cannily write about. Who has time for Twitter and Facebook? Why reduce our wisdom to a hashtag, when enjoying the "life of the mind" is infinitely more enjoyable? Irrelevance is the greatest liberation a human can aspire to. Thank you for reminding us of its glories.
HooRay