I was once one of those "bums" at the Gospel Mission.
I had lost my low paying job through no fault of my own. (Lay offs due to budget cuts.) My former job had paid so little (this is, after all the plutocracy of America; working class need not apply) that I had no savings. I gave up my apartment unable to pay another month's rent. And went to live on the street.
I found a park where I could sleep in the high weeds and, except for the occassional curious dog, I was left alone.
Finally I turned 65 and Social Security saved me from all that. (Thank you FDR, Harry Hopkins and Francis Perkins for your compassion for us insignificant and worthless "little people".)
So America? Nah. I don't need it. Exorbitant rents; greedy landlords, underpayed labor, bloated, self-serving CEO pay, corrupt politicians. I've had enough. I'm leaving the country in nine days. Good riddence.
A tropical island nation where "all the women are strong, all the men good-looking and all the children are above average." If you so desire, you may infer the rest of that.
By the way I love your name. My mother was named "Eileen"; like you she had a Celtic first name and a Germanic surname. And if you would like to inform me that "Nelson" is English please recall that the original "English" were Anglo-Saxons from coastal North West Germany.
Thanks, Tom. I am all Scandinavian, Norwegian and a little Danish. I really wanted to know where you have decided to go but o.k I guess I will have to just vacation to other havens. I don't think I would be happy moving away from family and friends.
When I was younger I was told that if one had had enough to drink and one saw me out of the corner of their eye, in very dim light, one might have almost thought I was good-looking. But that was years ago. Now I'm more often mistaken for the elderly gentlemen bagging items in the grocery store because his Social Security allotment didn't quite make ends meet. And he needs to supplement his meager income.
It's very humiliating to go grocery shopping and have the woman behind me berate me for not bagging her groceries correctly. Sometimes a guy just can't win.
So, let me add to your tales of bummery: When I was a young girl attending a "fundamentalist" church that happened to be convenient in the neighborhood, many of us young "evangelist" people were inculcated with the idea that hymn-singing would so profoundly touch the hearts of the "bums" that they would turn away from all sin and grab onto the hem of Jesus' garments and be - SAVED. I was particularly vulnerable to the Albert Schweitzers and Tom Dooleys of this world, touched by biographical accounts of their "goodness."
Our church was a poor one, concrete block structure with mottled colored glass to mimic stained glass, a large, deep warm-water "bath tub" kind of installation for baptisms held behind a cloth curtain that was whisked open for the baptism and closed again for the emergence from the tub into towels, this being the modern, all-weather substitute for the old river-immersions for baptisms. Most of us were relatively poor kids from relatively poor families, but nonetheless, none who were described as "bums." So we qualified by singing voice, by earnestness, and by bum-lessness, as 12-13 year old girls to go in the old church van with a preacher down to the areas of town where bums could be found, all around the Salvation Army. And there we would go up on a little stage and sing hymns to the bums, maybe put up there like Homer's sirens were to Odysseus.
We soon learned that their attention was not held by the singing or any spiritual fervor, but by the requirement that they stay and listen to our songs and the preacher's sermons before they could receive any actual food. He preached. We sang. And more than a few of the "bums" came forward to be "saved" at the call for them to do so. Maybe stepping forward to be “saved” yielded second helpings or dessert. Some of the bums came forward on more than one Sunday night, apparently believing that being saved was a cumulative experience, or some kind of insurance program. After a time, I began to notice that the "bums" came forward with bottles of liquor stuck in jacket or pants pockets, and the same "bums" with the same kind of bottles often made the same walk down that aisle at the Salvation Army Sunday after Sunday.
I developed a cynicism that transcended my youthful urges to "help." Eventually I stopped attending that, or any, church and eventually I added skepticism to cynicism and was left with an abiding love of the church music, of all kinds, but not of the churches. And of the "bums" - well, they come in all kinds, don't they, just like all of humanity: the hypocrites, the grifters, the loafers, the wounded, the liars and the profoundly damaged. We're all "bums" in a way and we're all trying to save ourselves and be saved, singing for our supper, and then going off to get a good meal and maybe a slug of hootch now and then just for the orneryness of it all.
And as for grocery bagging and being judged: when I was a teenager I was a grocery store clerk as a summer job and took great pride in the speed and accuracy I applied to the old, pre-computer cash registers, those big behemoths with cash drawers that opened with force and authority, but it was also my grocery bagging that I took pride in. There is an art and skill to it – those were paper bag days – so that the groceries were respected, packed well, not too heavy, not too light, and no breakage. It was engineering and architecture. Taking care in packing the groceries was a way of showing respect for the working people whose labor was wrapped in those bags and whose wages were given over to feed themselves and their families. It was also, and maybe moreso, respect for the process of doing something, anything well because all work is worthy of our care and respect.
My point? Do your best with what you have and be grateful for it, no matter what, and while our marvelous country could and should do a lot better by its citizens, most especially for those who cannot 'do' for themselves, in the end, we are all (or almost all of us) responsible for our own lives. It might be suggested that the alternative to your being laid off from work and moving into the tall grass of a park until old enough for Social Security, finding another job would have been a good option to explore. I’ve not been an official “bum” yet, but there’s still world enough and time, I reckon. I hope to avoid it but who knows.
Merry Christmas to all pranksters and bums and good-hearted souls, not the liars, cheats, con-artists and phonies though!
You don't think I tormented my heart and soul looking for a job! You are buying into the deeply held and pervasive myth in America that "there are good jobs for everyone and if you don't have one you must be flawed in some fundemental way." Because it is you, the isolated individual who is defective and flawed. Where did you go wrong with your life? American society is ideal; if you, the individual don't have a job, it is YOU who are flawed and defective.
There are other thoughtless myths like this that are fundemental to keeping American society flowing smoothly and the working class complacent, subserviant and subordinate to their capitalist masters, the 1% who own the means of production and control society for their benefit.
There are not enough jobs for everyone in America. Don't obdurate people like you understand this? Why do you think there is always an "unemployment rate" of people who want jobs but can't find one? I suggest you try to learn a little about the society you live in and apparently so admire. Ignorance is a terrible defect. It spreads far beyond the possessor.
Have you ever wondered why a worker who works for an hour might add $100, $$200 or $500 dollars to his capitalist masters wealth but is in return given a paltry $15 or $10 or $7.25 an hour for his or her effort?
You, like a lot of my fellow Americans, don't really understand how American society functions.
Ignorance is a terrible thing. And there is a lot of it in this country.
Despite coming from sea-faring stock, I’ve always avoided ocean cruises, owing to lingering concerns about exposure to Noro virus and the fates shared by the Titanic, the Andrea Doria, and the Edmund Fitzgerald. But then for decades, I had doubts about flying due to the crashes that claimed Buddy Holly, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline. Now, I am old and with the end in sight, I have soloed. So I can begin to imagine Christmas on a cruise with loved ones. Enjoy the cruise...and avoid Noro virus if you can.
I take your broader point, but out of love for the greatest lake, Lake Superior, that is where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, not on the ocean. However, when reading about a Christmas-era trip on the Atlantic in Garrison Keillor's piece, it didn't seem like an appealing time or place, but it could be the warmer regions of the Atlantic and warmer destinations. Maybe we're thinking too much of the north Atlantic and its icebergs and dangers, but group-singing of "Abide with Me" while skirting north Atlantic icebergs could have a kind of spiritual aspect to it, I reckon. (Nod to the many "Titanic" movies)
Also, the photo that accompanies his essay is one of a tropical beach, beach chairs, palm trees, sun, sand..... no icebergs or rough seas in evidence there.
Another gem from the heart, Garrison. Thank you. Neither methodist nor catholic, but definitely, like you, in the downsizing time of life, grace is indeed the ultimate gift. And you certainly supply a lot of it. So, for this Christmas, fair winds and following seas...
Good morning Garrison. If true, and why would in not be true, your feelings of the season of gifting for no real good reason is also a very large part of my sensitivities at Christmas time. Watching people sitting in a circle in some living room or family area all with stacks of wrapped boxes on their laps waiting their turn to open and muster some phony expression of surprise and great wonder is painful for me. Seeing children with stacks of presents/toys just opened and now discarded for the joy of the next and next and then, "that's all"? Take me away, please. Merry Christmas to all. rr
As you said so well at the end of one tyour winter holiday fests some years ago,, which has stuck in my mind, and rightly so, as we looked at the food and you closed with, "More we do not need." How lucky we are to have what gets us there. Amen.
Re Christmas at sea: In early years of our marriage, my dear spouse and I went with in-laws on a Caribbean cruise which included Christmas at sea and New Years Eve in Miami. Christmas Eve had us rounding the north coast of Cuba to head towards Jamaica, the Caymans, Cozumel, etc. I stayed up late with a handful of other seekers to hear a lovely homily by the ship's priest, and provided verses 2 & 3 of "Silent Night," solo as the others barely got through verse 1. A walk with the Fr. on the deck, remarking at the bright stars, and the building clouds before calling it a night. Christmas Day was stormy; high seas, everyone else seasick but me (Great Lakes fishing with Dad experience came in handy), one waiter, and a retired fighter pilot all at breakfast with finnan haddie, eggs & toast, coffee and brandy. Most memorable. And New Year's Eve in Miami included record cold temps.
Forty years past--- I've never taken another cruise. May your cruise be everything you hope for, Garrison, and beyond. Merry Christmas!
Right now, today, the weather at sea has been treacherous with ships heading home to port..my former church used to have this over the alter..."even the winds and the sea obey Him"... Prayers ascending for you!🙏
Luke 2:9-11 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
There’s our epiphany, a thought that makes one stop and wonder. This one act has changed the world and is continuing to do so. It is awe inspiring. We are the chosen. Now, what do we do to justify this honor?
Science tells us that there have been five extinction episodes on this planet earth. There have been five times before mankind's existence that all life on earth was nearly wiped out and yet here we are. Science again is saying that our actions are driving the planet toward a sixth extinction. We can still change this prediction but we need to change our intentions. We should make our goal less about greed and more about caring.
What are we to do? This honor of being chosen should motivate us toward a goal of caring for one another like Christ taught us. Everyone is a creation of God, we were taught to care for God’s creation and this is responsibly for being chosen. It seems obvious that this was what we were chosen for.
The most precious gift you can give to someone is your friendship. A family is the most treasured thing a person can have. Love from others and of others is the most wanted and sought after gift anyone can have. This seems very obvious.
My heart goes out to you.
I was once one of those "bums" at the Gospel Mission.
I had lost my low paying job through no fault of my own. (Lay offs due to budget cuts.) My former job had paid so little (this is, after all the plutocracy of America; working class need not apply) that I had no savings. I gave up my apartment unable to pay another month's rent. And went to live on the street.
I found a park where I could sleep in the high weeds and, except for the occassional curious dog, I was left alone.
Finally I turned 65 and Social Security saved me from all that. (Thank you FDR, Harry Hopkins and Francis Perkins for your compassion for us insignificant and worthless "little people".)
So America? Nah. I don't need it. Exorbitant rents; greedy landlords, underpayed labor, bloated, self-serving CEO pay, corrupt politicians. I've had enough. I'm leaving the country in nine days. Good riddence.
Where are you going?
A tropical island nation where "all the women are strong, all the men good-looking and all the children are above average." If you so desire, you may infer the rest of that.
By the way I love your name. My mother was named "Eileen"; like you she had a Celtic first name and a Germanic surname. And if you would like to inform me that "Nelson" is English please recall that the original "English" were Anglo-Saxons from coastal North West Germany.
Thanks, Tom. I am all Scandinavian, Norwegian and a little Danish. I really wanted to know where you have decided to go but o.k I guess I will have to just vacation to other havens. I don't think I would be happy moving away from family and friends.
Ms. Nelson. May I call you Eileen?
When I was younger I was told that if one had had enough to drink and one saw me out of the corner of their eye, in very dim light, one might have almost thought I was good-looking. But that was years ago. Now I'm more often mistaken for the elderly gentlemen bagging items in the grocery store because his Social Security allotment didn't quite make ends meet. And he needs to supplement his meager income.
It's very humiliating to go grocery shopping and have the woman behind me berate me for not bagging her groceries correctly. Sometimes a guy just can't win.
So, let me add to your tales of bummery: When I was a young girl attending a "fundamentalist" church that happened to be convenient in the neighborhood, many of us young "evangelist" people were inculcated with the idea that hymn-singing would so profoundly touch the hearts of the "bums" that they would turn away from all sin and grab onto the hem of Jesus' garments and be - SAVED. I was particularly vulnerable to the Albert Schweitzers and Tom Dooleys of this world, touched by biographical accounts of their "goodness."
Our church was a poor one, concrete block structure with mottled colored glass to mimic stained glass, a large, deep warm-water "bath tub" kind of installation for baptisms held behind a cloth curtain that was whisked open for the baptism and closed again for the emergence from the tub into towels, this being the modern, all-weather substitute for the old river-immersions for baptisms. Most of us were relatively poor kids from relatively poor families, but nonetheless, none who were described as "bums." So we qualified by singing voice, by earnestness, and by bum-lessness, as 12-13 year old girls to go in the old church van with a preacher down to the areas of town where bums could be found, all around the Salvation Army. And there we would go up on a little stage and sing hymns to the bums, maybe put up there like Homer's sirens were to Odysseus.
We soon learned that their attention was not held by the singing or any spiritual fervor, but by the requirement that they stay and listen to our songs and the preacher's sermons before they could receive any actual food. He preached. We sang. And more than a few of the "bums" came forward to be "saved" at the call for them to do so. Maybe stepping forward to be “saved” yielded second helpings or dessert. Some of the bums came forward on more than one Sunday night, apparently believing that being saved was a cumulative experience, or some kind of insurance program. After a time, I began to notice that the "bums" came forward with bottles of liquor stuck in jacket or pants pockets, and the same "bums" with the same kind of bottles often made the same walk down that aisle at the Salvation Army Sunday after Sunday.
I developed a cynicism that transcended my youthful urges to "help." Eventually I stopped attending that, or any, church and eventually I added skepticism to cynicism and was left with an abiding love of the church music, of all kinds, but not of the churches. And of the "bums" - well, they come in all kinds, don't they, just like all of humanity: the hypocrites, the grifters, the loafers, the wounded, the liars and the profoundly damaged. We're all "bums" in a way and we're all trying to save ourselves and be saved, singing for our supper, and then going off to get a good meal and maybe a slug of hootch now and then just for the orneryness of it all.
And as for grocery bagging and being judged: when I was a teenager I was a grocery store clerk as a summer job and took great pride in the speed and accuracy I applied to the old, pre-computer cash registers, those big behemoths with cash drawers that opened with force and authority, but it was also my grocery bagging that I took pride in. There is an art and skill to it – those were paper bag days – so that the groceries were respected, packed well, not too heavy, not too light, and no breakage. It was engineering and architecture. Taking care in packing the groceries was a way of showing respect for the working people whose labor was wrapped in those bags and whose wages were given over to feed themselves and their families. It was also, and maybe moreso, respect for the process of doing something, anything well because all work is worthy of our care and respect.
My point? Do your best with what you have and be grateful for it, no matter what, and while our marvelous country could and should do a lot better by its citizens, most especially for those who cannot 'do' for themselves, in the end, we are all (or almost all of us) responsible for our own lives. It might be suggested that the alternative to your being laid off from work and moving into the tall grass of a park until old enough for Social Security, finding another job would have been a good option to explore. I’ve not been an official “bum” yet, but there’s still world enough and time, I reckon. I hope to avoid it but who knows.
Merry Christmas to all pranksters and bums and good-hearted souls, not the liars, cheats, con-artists and phonies though!
You don't think I tormented my heart and soul looking for a job! You are buying into the deeply held and pervasive myth in America that "there are good jobs for everyone and if you don't have one you must be flawed in some fundemental way." Because it is you, the isolated individual who is defective and flawed. Where did you go wrong with your life? American society is ideal; if you, the individual don't have a job, it is YOU who are flawed and defective.
There are other thoughtless myths like this that are fundemental to keeping American society flowing smoothly and the working class complacent, subserviant and subordinate to their capitalist masters, the 1% who own the means of production and control society for their benefit.
There are not enough jobs for everyone in America. Don't obdurate people like you understand this? Why do you think there is always an "unemployment rate" of people who want jobs but can't find one? I suggest you try to learn a little about the society you live in and apparently so admire. Ignorance is a terrible defect. It spreads far beyond the possessor.
Have you ever wondered why a worker who works for an hour might add $100, $$200 or $500 dollars to his capitalist masters wealth but is in return given a paltry $15 or $10 or $7.25 an hour for his or her effort?
You, like a lot of my fellow Americans, don't really understand how American society functions.
Ignorance is a terrible thing. And there is a lot of it in this country.
Perfect. Thank you. And have a lovely holiday!
Despite coming from sea-faring stock, I’ve always avoided ocean cruises, owing to lingering concerns about exposure to Noro virus and the fates shared by the Titanic, the Andrea Doria, and the Edmund Fitzgerald. But then for decades, I had doubts about flying due to the crashes that claimed Buddy Holly, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline. Now, I am old and with the end in sight, I have soloed. So I can begin to imagine Christmas on a cruise with loved ones. Enjoy the cruise...and avoid Noro virus if you can.
I take your broader point, but out of love for the greatest lake, Lake Superior, that is where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, not on the ocean. However, when reading about a Christmas-era trip on the Atlantic in Garrison Keillor's piece, it didn't seem like an appealing time or place, but it could be the warmer regions of the Atlantic and warmer destinations. Maybe we're thinking too much of the north Atlantic and its icebergs and dangers, but group-singing of "Abide with Me" while skirting north Atlantic icebergs could have a kind of spiritual aspect to it, I reckon. (Nod to the many "Titanic" movies)
Also, the photo that accompanies his essay is one of a tropical beach, beach chairs, palm trees, sun, sand..... no icebergs or rough seas in evidence there.
Another gem from the heart, Garrison. Thank you. Neither methodist nor catholic, but definitely, like you, in the downsizing time of life, grace is indeed the ultimate gift. And you certainly supply a lot of it. So, for this Christmas, fair winds and following seas...
Simply lovely.
Good morning Garrison. If true, and why would in not be true, your feelings of the season of gifting for no real good reason is also a very large part of my sensitivities at Christmas time. Watching people sitting in a circle in some living room or family area all with stacks of wrapped boxes on their laps waiting their turn to open and muster some phony expression of surprise and great wonder is painful for me. Seeing children with stacks of presents/toys just opened and now discarded for the joy of the next and next and then, "that's all"? Take me away, please. Merry Christmas to all. rr
As you said so well at the end of one tyour winter holiday fests some years ago,, which has stuck in my mind, and rightly so, as we looked at the food and you closed with, "More we do not need." How lucky we are to have what gets us there. Amen.
Bon Voyage!
This is him at his best-self. I love to be reminded of this side of him; the curmudgeon-side is self defeating.
Re Christmas at sea: In early years of our marriage, my dear spouse and I went with in-laws on a Caribbean cruise which included Christmas at sea and New Years Eve in Miami. Christmas Eve had us rounding the north coast of Cuba to head towards Jamaica, the Caymans, Cozumel, etc. I stayed up late with a handful of other seekers to hear a lovely homily by the ship's priest, and provided verses 2 & 3 of "Silent Night," solo as the others barely got through verse 1. A walk with the Fr. on the deck, remarking at the bright stars, and the building clouds before calling it a night. Christmas Day was stormy; high seas, everyone else seasick but me (Great Lakes fishing with Dad experience came in handy), one waiter, and a retired fighter pilot all at breakfast with finnan haddie, eggs & toast, coffee and brandy. Most memorable. And New Year's Eve in Miami included record cold temps.
Forty years past--- I've never taken another cruise. May your cruise be everything you hope for, Garrison, and beyond. Merry Christmas!
I read this piece like Emerson reading Whitman for the first time.
Right now, today, the weather at sea has been treacherous with ships heading home to port..my former church used to have this over the alter..."even the winds and the sea obey Him"... Prayers ascending for you!🙏
I hope there is good entertainment on your cruise. Great entertainment is what your cruises were all about. Thank-you for all of those.
"My mother hugged me only once"
No wonder you love your wife so much, and she you.
Yes. That sentence jolted me. I guess that's why he chose to hug the world.
The plan sounds full of peace and love, Garrison. What could be better? Wishing you calm seas and thoughtful shipmates.
Luke 2:9-11 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
There’s our epiphany, a thought that makes one stop and wonder. This one act has changed the world and is continuing to do so. It is awe inspiring. We are the chosen. Now, what do we do to justify this honor?
Science tells us that there have been five extinction episodes on this planet earth. There have been five times before mankind's existence that all life on earth was nearly wiped out and yet here we are. Science again is saying that our actions are driving the planet toward a sixth extinction. We can still change this prediction but we need to change our intentions. We should make our goal less about greed and more about caring.
What are we to do? This honor of being chosen should motivate us toward a goal of caring for one another like Christ taught us. Everyone is a creation of God, we were taught to care for God’s creation and this is responsibly for being chosen. It seems obvious that this was what we were chosen for.
The most precious gift you can give to someone is your friendship. A family is the most treasured thing a person can have. Love from others and of others is the most wanted and sought after gift anyone can have. This seems very obvious.