Post to the Host

Comments from the week of July 5, 2022

Dear Mr. Keillor,

Familiarity may breed contempt to some, but it breeds hope for me. It is delightful to have had your voice and sincerity of kindness grace the airwaves of public radio — you’re a heartwarming icon for sure!

But sadness has outpaced my hope and gratitude at the present. I lost my sister four years ago, divorced two years ago, lost my job two months ago where I thought I finally found my strengths and was applying them, and my mother is presently declining more and more with dementia and a variety of health problems. I have a wonderful daughter but she lives near her mother and her mother’s family and I don’t want to lean on her.

My hope and confidence feel as though they are dwindling. I believe in the goodness of people. Next to my daughter, I hold on to my writing as something that I believe I can offer to others. Though I could certainly use a reliable income (I am working but falling short), and writing is kind of my last hope at the moment. 

I am searching for somewhere that what I love could be meaningful. I would treasure your thoughts from your line of work. Youth and time are certainly not on my side as well. 

Sincerely,
Michael Irving

You give a clear account of a hard fall and grief and bad luck, and I’m not in a position to give good advice, but a good therapist might be able to help. As for the value of writing, the business of publishing has changed rather dramatically, thanks to the internet and changing demographics of literacy, and the best reason to write is to amuse yourself and perhaps gain some clarity. I hope you have good friends you can call on. Every writer needs some, people who can warn you when you’re off the mark. I also think that you can do much to rescue yourself by imposing on yourself a strict daily discipline that gives order to your life.

GK

Today’s Post to the Host included an exchange with Ian who was unable to tell his dying father that his grandson is gay. You offered comforting words.

Chester Wenger wrote an open letter to his Mennonite church concerning the very real struggle Christians have showing grace and mercy to fellow sinners. It may also be a comfort to Ian, his father, and his son.

https://anabaptistworld.org/open-letter-beloved-church/

William Kramer

Garrison,

I read your July 5 column about the radish, the onion, and perfection. There is only one perfect onion —the Vidalia onion grown only in 20 South Georgia counties. The Vidalia is like what Mark Twain said about Southern watermelon — it wasn’t what Eve took in the Garden of Eden because she repented!

Robert Travis

The next time I’m in Georgia and someone offers me a Vidalia, I will take a bite and see if I agree with you.

GK

I read somewhere that radishes can be an aphrodisiac, especially those hot little red devils that can make us jump up and bump our heads on a cabinet door. When I took out my grandsons for pizza the other day, somehow one of those #7 hot ghost peppers got on my pizza. Suffice to say there wasn’t enough ice water enough to cool my tongue or eat any pizza that day. Let’s be careful out there!

Tom

We don’t have radishes that hot in Minnesota. I wonder if you didn’t accidentally order a pepper pizza. Sorry you were in such distress in full view of your grandsons. We grandfathers strive to be iconic, not pathetic. Carry on.

GK

Seek Perfection. But if you don’t find it, and you won’t, that’s okay. I heard a piece once, probably on the CBC science program Quirks & Quarks, about someone who did a computer simulation of evolution and concluded that evolution doesn’t produce perfect organisms. It produces organisms that are good enough. If good enough is good enough for evolution, it’s good enough for me.

Elizabeth Block

Toronto, Canada

I did a show Sunday night in Nashville and it was three hours long, which is too long for people my age. As the writer and host of the show, I could see all its mistakes and weaknesses clearly, but the audience seemed to like it and some parts of it they really loved, and during intermission the crowd stood and sang hymns with me, the auditorium having once been a gospel tabernacle, and the sound of Southerners singing was remarkable. And after the show, I slipped out the stage door and ran into nine or ten security people, all in uniform, and they told me how much they liked it. That really made the evening for me. I don’t recall cops complimenting a show I did. So I think it was good enough.

GK

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