I would argue that the ability to live in the moment, comfortably and with serenity, for those of us not born into wealth, was the result of living in the future while we worked hard and endured pain or discomfort to get there. I do not believe that most 20 or 30 somethings have the luxury of living in the moment.
On another tangent, anybody got a guess who is going to be the next ruler of the world? My money is on the dude shooting up several rockets each week. However, I believe the interaction between the crazy, but not stupid one and the mad scientist that wants to rule the world is going to be interesting. Wonder what the mad scientist thinks about Gaza?
I'd counter that I agree, but that the wealth 20 and 30 somethings haven't acquired yet isn't financial. It's the experience to realize the value of the moments they've already had, but were too late to cherish. Times that may have been difficult, but were shared with people close to them. And the realization that comfort is always as close as accepting where you are now, or as far as where you think you want to be, no matter how wealthy you are.
The late, great American writer and analyst of American culture and politics, Gore Vidal, wrote a novel decades ago presciently predictive of what is going on in Washington now. The novel "Khali", involved a young, genius American medic in Vietnam during the war in that nation devises a deadly pathogen that, after inoculating his family and close friends releases the pathogen on the world killing every human except his family and friends. At first Jim "Khali" and his cohorts enjoy the world without interference by any other human. " Khali's"wife adopts a male and female baboon to provide amusement. Khali's intent is to repopulate the world with the offspring of his wife and consort but neither of them are able to bear children. Eventually all Khali's associates die off while the baboons multiply unchecked. Eventually Khali himself dies and the world is ruled by rampaging troops of baboons with civilization now in ruins.
The truth is most painful and reality sucks. You’re building your own realities that enable you to go forward into our future, as bleak as it appears to be. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and prayers. At least yours are really from your heart.
That story of the lunch with Perelman made my day, and I'm only a couple hours into it. Thanks!
I genuinely hope there's a book waiting to be written about the further adventures (AI-narrated or otherwise) of your ancestors' lives in eternity. To shake your great-great-granddad William Evans Keillor's hand would be a high point of my own visit to that country. I'd say to him: "Gary -- you remember him, right? Probably just a gleam in some descendant's eye when you moved here -- he turned out all right. He lives his life in Neurosis (it's a tony gated community on the other side of the universe), which drives him crazy, but on the other hand he's also fine with that. Such conflicts are the price of admission to the neighborhood, I gather. Anyhow, he greatly admires you, and although he never got to shake your hand, he wishes you well, and looks forward to talking to you over the top of the wall one of these days. He admires you, but knows there's no way you'll ever live next-door to each other."
Now that is the Garrison Keillor from Lake Wobegon that I have grown to love and admire over the decades of listening to and reading his words of wisdom and humor.
I am also older and I know about living in the moment, but I care about the lives of my children and grandchildren, the people down the street, and those in other parts of the globe.
I hope these essays can give solace and support to all these folks. The writer can still enjoy his coffee and lunch and admiration of the reader.
I was all set to disagree with the previous commentator, until I read your last paragraph. Perhaps it was meant to be gallows humor, but the end of the American experiment in democracy, and possibly of the entire world as we know it, is seldom funny outside of cheesy, comic sci-fi fantasy movies.
The theatre of the absurd used to be a place where humorists such as Perelman and many others of his class of wits, many from the Jewish diaspora for reasons that would make a good discussion, lived. Now we're living with witless, humorless, actually mentally ill, money hounds bouncing like balls off the rails of the billiard table called the US Government among equally defective politicians whose visions are clouded with partisan nonsense to the point of no return. My mother who lived just short of 100 (died in 1911) was a fan of Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now". Maybe that's all we can do.
Yes, and the quality of your writing strongly suggested that you were nowhere near 200 yourself! This Trump administration is indeed the horror show any rational person could have seen coming. If nothing else, people should have realized it when he bellowed "They're eating the dogs! They're eating the cats!" If they somehow missed the election denial and the insurrection, that is. What the "Republicans" in Congress have done to us is unforgivable.
I live in the present. If I were to think about the future, I’d be alarmed about the utter demise of journalism and the self-degradation that many U.S. senators are eager to accept and the use of cryptocurrency to enrich the Chief Executive by tech tycoons kicking back 20% of their federal contracts.
Maybe you didn't read Keillor's piece with reference to the Nazi salute? He wrote,
"I guess I’m just Elon Musk at heart. Give me an office in the White House, let the old guy revise the Constitution with the wave of a Sharpie all he likes, I will give the Nazi salute when and where I please, and when the Earth burns up, I’ll be sitting on Mars eating a Milky Way, and I care not that I’m the only human being in the universe."
The actual Nazi salute is not funny at all because of all of the horrors it represents. There is nothing funny about what Musk is doing, including his Nazi proclivities, but brilliant satirists might skewer him with exquisite success because he is bizarre, weird, and reportedly almost always under the influence of drugs, not unlike the original Nazis who so many of the musk-thump criminal organization seem to admire.
Charlie Chaplin could skewer those of that ilk and do it in a way that was generally regarded as brilliant satire. Did people actually laugh, i.e. find it funny? Maybe as a release valve of sorts from feeling terrorized and terrified by the actual Nazis. It can be very comforting in the midst of terror to have someone puncture, figuratively, the monsters taking over the world. Did Keillor do that with any skill or wit in this piece? Some think so. I am with those who did not.
I don't think Keillor was saying the Nazi salute is funny, but was writing as if he were Elon Musk. (Even in imagined assumption of that persona, one would need an exorcism, a protracted shower, and thorough debriefing through intense psychiatry and deprogramming after said assumption.) So, I'm guessing it was Keillor writing as if Musk.
Me, writing as if I'm not one of the millions of stunned Americans being terrorized by "my own" government, thinks nothing whatsoever is funny about what is happening. Occasionally, some of the comedic court jesters can get at the funny bone - Jimmy Kimmel, who is marvelous for never, ever letting up on the evil/vile thump - even though thump keeps Kimmel in his cross-hairs of hate - Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, all have moments of wit and brilliance for skewering the monsters holding sway over us, our lives, our safety, security, health, environment, the future.....
The old great writers of brilliant resistance to Soviet horrors knew how to do it with talent and finesse, getting under the skin of their sadistic rulers and, in turn, getting themselves put into real gulags by the monsters. Those writers were often very, very funny, intelligent, and very brave.
For this writing from Keillor, my reaction was Why write this? Why? First of all, you keep saying you are living in the present while simultaneously reverting to your past, in various iterations. But most of all, why write this? What was the point?
Charles Dickens is known for the wonderful names he gave to his characters. May I suggest one for Mr. Keillor: Gary Humblebrag.
regardless of the degree of this post's "wit and skill," it does not imply that nazi salutes are funny or harmless. you seem to agree, so i don't understand why you're replying to me as if we disagree.
It's sometimes difficult to understand "tone" from reading words and apparently I misunderstood your tone; I thought you were refuting the other poster about the "salutes." I misunderstood and I apologize.
I'm sorry. In the light of our present world, if this was supposed to be funny or witty, it was not.
Thank you Pam and Kevin. My reaction was the same.
Thank you Pam and Kevin and Bonnie. Mine wasn't.
have y'all heard of gallows humor?
I would argue that the ability to live in the moment, comfortably and with serenity, for those of us not born into wealth, was the result of living in the future while we worked hard and endured pain or discomfort to get there. I do not believe that most 20 or 30 somethings have the luxury of living in the moment.
On another tangent, anybody got a guess who is going to be the next ruler of the world? My money is on the dude shooting up several rockets each week. However, I believe the interaction between the crazy, but not stupid one and the mad scientist that wants to rule the world is going to be interesting. Wonder what the mad scientist thinks about Gaza?
I'd counter that I agree, but that the wealth 20 and 30 somethings haven't acquired yet isn't financial. It's the experience to realize the value of the moments they've already had, but were too late to cherish. Times that may have been difficult, but were shared with people close to them. And the realization that comfort is always as close as accepting where you are now, or as far as where you think you want to be, no matter how wealthy you are.
The late, great American writer and analyst of American culture and politics, Gore Vidal, wrote a novel decades ago presciently predictive of what is going on in Washington now. The novel "Khali", involved a young, genius American medic in Vietnam during the war in that nation devises a deadly pathogen that, after inoculating his family and close friends releases the pathogen on the world killing every human except his family and friends. At first Jim "Khali" and his cohorts enjoy the world without interference by any other human. " Khali's"wife adopts a male and female baboon to provide amusement. Khali's intent is to repopulate the world with the offspring of his wife and consort but neither of them are able to bear children. Eventually all Khali's associates die off while the baboons multiply unchecked. Eventually Khali himself dies and the world is ruled by rampaging troops of baboons with civilization now in ruins.
I think “rampaging troops of baboons” pretty much describes the current state of affairs.
The truth is most painful and reality sucks. You’re building your own realities that enable you to go forward into our future, as bleak as it appears to be. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and prayers. At least yours are really from your heart.
“Don’t wake him up. He’s got insomnia. He’s trying to sleep it off.” Perfect.
Ahhhh! the old Milky Way story!!!
That story of the lunch with Perelman made my day, and I'm only a couple hours into it. Thanks!
I genuinely hope there's a book waiting to be written about the further adventures (AI-narrated or otherwise) of your ancestors' lives in eternity. To shake your great-great-granddad William Evans Keillor's hand would be a high point of my own visit to that country. I'd say to him: "Gary -- you remember him, right? Probably just a gleam in some descendant's eye when you moved here -- he turned out all right. He lives his life in Neurosis (it's a tony gated community on the other side of the universe), which drives him crazy, but on the other hand he's also fine with that. Such conflicts are the price of admission to the neighborhood, I gather. Anyhow, he greatly admires you, and although he never got to shake your hand, he wishes you well, and looks forward to talking to you over the top of the wall one of these days. He admires you, but knows there's no way you'll ever live next-door to each other."
Now that is the Garrison Keillor from Lake Wobegon that I have grown to love and admire over the decades of listening to and reading his words of wisdom and humor.
I am also older and I know about living in the moment, but I care about the lives of my children and grandchildren, the people down the street, and those in other parts of the globe.
I hope these essays can give solace and support to all these folks. The writer can still enjoy his coffee and lunch and admiration of the reader.
I know that Garrison Keillor also cares about others. I just insist on knowing it. Maybe I'm missing the point of this post.
I was all set to disagree with the previous commentator, until I read your last paragraph. Perhaps it was meant to be gallows humor, but the end of the American experiment in democracy, and possibly of the entire world as we know it, is seldom funny outside of cheesy, comic sci-fi fantasy movies.
I'm trying desperately to come up with a pithy comment but failing. Sorry.
(Insert pithy comment on your comment here)
Still at a loss, but I'm working on it. And what does pitchy mean, anyway?
Expressing something in short. Snarky. Wry. Dry wit.
The theatre of the absurd used to be a place where humorists such as Perelman and many others of his class of wits, many from the Jewish diaspora for reasons that would make a good discussion, lived. Now we're living with witless, humorless, actually mentally ill, money hounds bouncing like balls off the rails of the billiard table called the US Government among equally defective politicians whose visions are clouded with partisan nonsense to the point of no return. My mother who lived just short of 100 (died in 1911) was a fan of Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now". Maybe that's all we can do.
1911? Did you mean 2011?
Oops! Yes, 2011. She was 100 not 200 years old. But the message is the same if we're all going to make it through the Trump horror show.
Yes, and the quality of your writing strongly suggested that you were nowhere near 200 yourself! This Trump administration is indeed the horror show any rational person could have seen coming. If nothing else, people should have realized it when he bellowed "They're eating the dogs! They're eating the cats!" If they somehow missed the election denial and the insurrection, that is. What the "Republicans" in Congress have done to us is unforgivable.
A most enjoyable read! 😁
Wow!!! Stop the Universe, I want to get off.............
I live in the present. If I were to think about the future, I’d be alarmed about the utter demise of journalism and the self-degradation that many U.S. senators are eager to accept and the use of cryptocurrency to enrich the Chief Executive by tech tycoons kicking back 20% of their federal contracts.
Nazi salute? NOT FUNNY.
who said it was?
Maybe you didn't read Keillor's piece with reference to the Nazi salute? He wrote,
"I guess I’m just Elon Musk at heart. Give me an office in the White House, let the old guy revise the Constitution with the wave of a Sharpie all he likes, I will give the Nazi salute when and where I please, and when the Earth burns up, I’ll be sitting on Mars eating a Milky Way, and I care not that I’m the only human being in the universe."
The actual Nazi salute is not funny at all because of all of the horrors it represents. There is nothing funny about what Musk is doing, including his Nazi proclivities, but brilliant satirists might skewer him with exquisite success because he is bizarre, weird, and reportedly almost always under the influence of drugs, not unlike the original Nazis who so many of the musk-thump criminal organization seem to admire.
Charlie Chaplin could skewer those of that ilk and do it in a way that was generally regarded as brilliant satire. Did people actually laugh, i.e. find it funny? Maybe as a release valve of sorts from feeling terrorized and terrified by the actual Nazis. It can be very comforting in the midst of terror to have someone puncture, figuratively, the monsters taking over the world. Did Keillor do that with any skill or wit in this piece? Some think so. I am with those who did not.
I don't think Keillor was saying the Nazi salute is funny, but was writing as if he were Elon Musk. (Even in imagined assumption of that persona, one would need an exorcism, a protracted shower, and thorough debriefing through intense psychiatry and deprogramming after said assumption.) So, I'm guessing it was Keillor writing as if Musk.
Me, writing as if I'm not one of the millions of stunned Americans being terrorized by "my own" government, thinks nothing whatsoever is funny about what is happening. Occasionally, some of the comedic court jesters can get at the funny bone - Jimmy Kimmel, who is marvelous for never, ever letting up on the evil/vile thump - even though thump keeps Kimmel in his cross-hairs of hate - Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, all have moments of wit and brilliance for skewering the monsters holding sway over us, our lives, our safety, security, health, environment, the future.....
The old great writers of brilliant resistance to Soviet horrors knew how to do it with talent and finesse, getting under the skin of their sadistic rulers and, in turn, getting themselves put into real gulags by the monsters. Those writers were often very, very funny, intelligent, and very brave.
For this writing from Keillor, my reaction was Why write this? Why? First of all, you keep saying you are living in the present while simultaneously reverting to your past, in various iterations. But most of all, why write this? What was the point?
Charles Dickens is known for the wonderful names he gave to his characters. May I suggest one for Mr. Keillor: Gary Humblebrag.
regardless of the degree of this post's "wit and skill," it does not imply that nazi salutes are funny or harmless. you seem to agree, so i don't understand why you're replying to me as if we disagree.
It's sometimes difficult to understand "tone" from reading words and apparently I misunderstood your tone; I thought you were refuting the other poster about the "salutes." I misunderstood and I apologize.