Post to the Host

Comments from the Week of 10.26.21

I take issue with your evaluation that to be spared from depression is a matter of luck. The whole theory of luck is dubious to me anyway. Can one make oneself lucky? Why is it bestowed on some and not others? When some good befalls me, I don’t consider it luck, instead I feel blessed. So to be depressed is not an un-blessing, it is an illness with which to cope.

Have a blessed day,

Marcia Brown, Hamburg, NY

True enough, depression is an illness, but I feel lucky to have been spared it since the women I knew who suffered from it were dear friends, gifted, funny people, and what befell them seemed so crazy unfair. And I distinguish between a mental illness that shuts down the personality, and a physical ailment that does not.

GK

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Hi, Garrison:

It seems to me that every week the GOP puts out a list of people to harass. Based on the letters in your Post to the Host lately, you must be on that list. My, but supporters of #45 are touchy about any possible offense to their orange, graven image. Please do keep pushing back on these know-it-alls who worship a man — who, by his own account — does not read.

Best,

John W Mitchell, West Slope, CO

It’s a strange country we live in today and what more can I say? There has never been a figure in our history like 45, who held the absolute loyalty of such a large minority. The allegiance is remarkable.

GK

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Dear GK,

As a longtime listener and reader of your musings I have discovered that certain sentences gobsmack me and stay lodged in my brain. Your recent observation “This is the privilege of growing old, looking back and recognizing one’s good fortune” triggered a journey of self-reflection and gratitude.

To “recognize one’s good fortune” is to reach an age (76 for me) and a time in life when one can slow down enough to reflect and accept that much of what shapes us is both unearned and unexpected. A girl suddenly drops into the chaos of my life and 54 years later we hold hands and take inventory: five children and seven grandchildren and a modest home and technology that connects us with the world and opportunities to continue to learn, share, and practice loving kindness.

Almost 40 decades ago I heard you describe how Pastor Ingqvist got snookered out of a trip to Orlando. You describe how angry and disappointed the pastor’s wife becomes and how she stands behind his chair and he feels her hands upon his head. Then the sentences: “It’s an amazing thing to be loved by someone. Sometimes it is just about enough.”

I heard those powerful words as I was beginning to serve as a newly ordained Lutheran minister. I was 38 years old, and those words became the sail that carried me through many a storm. Thank you, sir.

Pastor Chuck Schwartz (Retired)

Wish you well in your retirement, Pastor, and when life provides you with excellent sermon topics, I hope you find a congregation to deliver them to.

GK

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Have treasured your imagination and storytelling ability for at least 40 years
You said you are searching for books to read that you can’t put down. If you haven’t sampled the unbelievably imaginative and great writing of Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith, please read at least one of his short stories in his book Tiny Tales — about the young man that hated spiders. Guaranteed smiles on your face.

Donald Madison

I shall find my way to it, thank you for the advice.

GK

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Yo, G-man,

I am amused by all these people who are shocked and feel betrayed that you’re slagging the loyal opposition. They can’t be that much of a fan, since you’ve been pouring vitriol on the right for almost 30 years, certainly as far back as The Book of Guys. Maybe even earlier for all I know.

I’m not part of either tribe, red or blue, but I do find the ad hominem, reductio ad absurdum tirades a bit tedious. I’m not putting together a committee to run you out of town on a rail. I just skim past the caustic bits like I fast-forward through commercials on a podcast.

Apropos of nothing, I’ll close with this little gem I wrote for The Woman.

One potato, two potato
Umptysquat
You’re my little sweet potato
I’m your tater tot

Feel free to steal it and use it on your Valentine’s card without attribution.

The Wunderfool

Thanks for the quatrain for your wife. The policy here at Post is to omit fan mail and focus on argumentative notes and corrective ones and also fascinating ones, and I printed yours because it has the word “umptysquat,” which I haven’t heard in ages.

GK

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Brother Keillor,

As a retired pastor who often had to defend my liberal perspectives from complaints by some of my fire-breathing congregants, I appreciate your thoughtful efforts to respond honestly to those who take issue with you about political correctness or our former Conman in Chief. It certainly is a challenge to speak our truth in love to others, especially when someone has their underwear in a knot over a comment that does not agree with their worldview or convictions. Given the amount of partisan orthodoxy and moral certitude many in our nation exhibit these days, I pray you will continue to stand fast in your truth, as misguided as you sometimes may be. Those of us in the Christian community sometimes forget that the sacrament of Communion brings all of us together as sinners in need of grace and a blessing. Every time I had the privilege to lift up the Communion cup in the spirit of forgiveness, I had to remind myself of the metaphorical reality that ”every box of raisins is a tragic tale of grapes that could have been wine.” Keep passing the peace as long as you can.

Pastor Paul Ponder, Cut and Shoot, Texas 

I did a show the other day in Sellersville, PA, stood on stage solo for two hours, and politics never came up somehow, it was all about feeling lucky and being a happy old man and Lake Wobegon, and people laughed a lot, and I felt it was good enough. It’s an odd performance, part fiction, part not, and a lot of improv, but it felt good and I tossed in some poems for good measure, and I don’t think anybody was there hoping to hear my political views.

GK

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In your PTTH on September 13th, there was the topic of when does a “writer” become a “Writer.” I love and appreciate your “A writer is someone who learns by the process of using language in description and explanation. You write in order to find out what you think. It can be surprising.” Thank you for that! The thought rings true for my attempts at stories, etc. I am sometimes amazed, delighted and/or perplexed in what shows up on my page. The very first time I was called a writer was when the rental car return guy saw my name and asked, “Are you the writer that wrote the rooster story?” (which I had submitted to Kauai’s newspaper a few days before). I grinned a proud grin and replied, “Yes, thank you for asking. I am the Writer!” Kind of a thrill for me. It encouraged me to write more, and so on, as the story goes …

Roger Lepley

Writing a story that a stranger remembers is quite a feat. A famous writer, whom I won’t name, told me that people often approached him and told him they loved his work and he could see that they were trying to recall one book in particular and couldn’t. It was sobering. I think that literature courses in high school and college should skip the writing of term papers about the work and focus on remembering it, that a student should be able to tell from memory the story of Romeo & Juliet or Moby Dick or Holden Caulfield. I’ve been pushing this idea for years and it’s gone nowhere.

GK

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Sir: I continue reading your posts because every so often you write a good one but I do feel discouraged by your abandonment of the basic principles of Lake Wobegon, especially the principle of Personal Responsibility, for the usual liberal cant about caring and sharing. People need to take responsibility for themselves, it’s as simple as that. How could you forget this in your old age?

Barker, Butte, MT

I would point you to the USDA study showing that 16 million kids struggle with hunger — which is shocking in this wealthy society with vast farmlands — to allow its own children to live on the edge of malnutrition? Malnutrition in the first 1,000 days, from conception to age two, according to the Academy of Pediatrics, contributes to irreparable harm, a lifetime of problems. Yes, there are careless parents, but poverty is the main cause. This is not a partisan issue. Everyone knows that every kid deserves a good chance at life. Soup kitchens won’t solve the problem. Federal action is needed. I could go on but will stop there.

GK

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Dear GEK,

I simply don’t understand what’s happened to people’s sense of humor. Reading your posts to the host adds to that. You only need mention a topic using your ironic humor and people become indignant. An example: birdwatchers.

A stand-up comic did a bit about hot-air balloons. Afterward, the manager told the comic to go talk to a couple in the lobby. They were professional balloonists. They were apoplectic.

Jeepers. I would not be surprised if you get complaints for having talked about having an MRI.

I live on some lost acres in Indiana. Early morning a thousand starlings are voicing their demands. Our feral, vicious cat strolls out of the barn and all of the birds are silenced. I find that amazing, fascinating, and hilarious.

Stay well, stay safe,
Buz

My wife objected strongly to my making fun of birdwatchers and so did my cousin and a couple old friends, and I’ve apologized for it and promised to never do it again. I have a strong sense of personal shame. Keep an eye on that cat.

GK

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The Frenchman Nicolas Appert invented the process of preserving food in bottles. For years he meticulously experimented and made notes, then wrote a book and instead of patenting the process gave all the information away for free because he wanted it to benefit humanity — no need to starve during the winter! No more sailors with scurvy! Peter Durand took Appert’s process, patented it using cans instead of bottles, and made a fortune while Appert died in poverty. Ah, capitalism. But the process changed the world.

My mother (and yours) sweated in the summer to can hundreds of jars of peaches, tomatoes, pickles; half a cow wrapped in paper packages waited at the locker plant where families rented freezer space; tins of yeasty bread and rolls rose softly each week. My generation didn’t want the work — why bother when the grocery store was nearby? And now my children’s generation is taking up vegetable gardening and canning, along with knitting and local beef, homemade pasta and breads. They learned it from the internet while on their phones — and they try new things from around the world. They grow Thai basil, eat Peruvian chicken, listen to traditional Ukrainian folk music, and wear clothes inspired by villages in Nepal. They don’t care so much about skin color but more about being kind, helping other people, and doing what is right. It gives me hope.

Marideth Leonard

Marideth, thanks for the great letter. This is what I love about PTTH. You add to our knowledge and you share our common experience with canning mothers and then the amazing thought that young people have learned canning from googling it on their phones. This gives me faith in the future. You’ve made my day.

GK

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Dear Mr. Keillor,

I am glad you are trying some exercises. More and more research is showing how that is good for the brain and I want us to have good brains. I am 78 also but starting to get forgetful. A neurologist told me the most important thing I can do is “STAY ACTIVE! STAY ACTIVE! STAY ACTIVE! I have been doing that for years by going to a physical fitness place three days a week and exercising. I am also trying to learn Swedish since I am 100% Swedish by heritage.

For balance exercise, I simply try to stand on one leg to put on my socks and pants and that same technique to take them off, switching legs, of course. So I work balance into my daily routines. I’ve been doing that for years, so don’t know what it would be like if I were to be just starting now.

Warren Johnson

I also put on my pants one leg at a time but am having trouble with the right leg, which tends to get stuck in the jeans and if there isn’t a wall nearby it’s a panicky moment. But you’re right and I intend to follow your neurologist’s advice as soon as I’m done with my new book, which is about the beauty of old age.

GK

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Every once in a long while I read something that is both well written and good in the “and God saw that this was good” sense. You did that in today’s Column 10.1.21. Don’t let it go to your head, but credit should be given when credit is due. And, in a coincidence I suppose, the God saw that this was good line appears in this week’s Torah portion as Jews start the new year with the first chapter of Genesis. So there you go. 

Elliot Rosen

I promise I will not let it go to my head. In fact, I’ve already forgotten what it was.

GK