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Comments from the week of 09.03.23

Hi, Garrison.

It is helpful for me as a fledgling member of the Old Farts Club to read your columns. I dare to hope that as I age, I can find some of the tolerance and benignity that you demonstrate, as well as the joyful appreciation of simple pleasures around you. It also made me yearn to walk the streets of New York again — spending a day walking everywhere, people watching.

Best,
Patricia McCormack

You have no good choice other than tolerance and benignity (how does one pronounce that? Do I sound the g or not?). Resentment and anger are not a good option. When you get to be my age, you’re grateful to be upright, moving forward, speaking in sentences. I’ve done dumber things than you could ever dream of and if I stopped to recall them, I could make myself terribly unhappy, so I don’t. I go for a walk and listen to the Spanish of the construction workers, the jibber-jabber of the young and elegant, the patience of people walking their dogs, Baggies in hand, and I feel grateful not to have to work hard or be elegant or walk a dog. GK

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Dear Mr. Keillor,

Am an admirer from the little country, New Zealand, and recently watched (for the fourth time!) the movie A Prairie Home Companion starring yourself plus Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. There is a too-short song (written apparently by you) called The Day Is Short and sung very beautifully by a lovely lady and I’m asking if there is any written music to it and if so, can I purchase it please?

I also recently bought your joke book as I front and organize concerts in my hometown and years ago made the mistake of telling a joke at the end to get audiences to laugh/lighten up as they left! Now of course it’s the jokes they wait for!

I hope you can help me.

Many thanks,
Regards,
Beverley Heard

Jearlyn Steele sang the hell out of that song in the movie and it was one of the high points, that and the scene with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin and Lindsay Lohan in the dressing room.

The day is short
The night is long
Why do we work so hard 
To get what we don’t even want?

We work so hard to get ahead of the game
Work half our lives until we’ve won.
And then one day we sit on the edge of our bed
And we think, “Lord, what have I done?”

The day is short
The night is long
Why do we work so hard 
To get what you don’t even want?

The man in the suit comes home and kisses his babies goodbye.
“Daddy’s got to go on a trip, honey, oh no, don’t you cry.”
He’s gone for a week then he’s home for a day.
Well, pretty soon the babies won’t cry when Daddy’s gone away. 

The day is short
The night is long
Why do you work so hard
To get what you don’t even want?

You know we go to the mall and we go from store to store.
Everybody seems to be wasting time until death walks through the door.
And then you look at all your merchandise and you see
We paid too high a price, you’ll see

The day is short
The night is long
Why do we work so hard 
To get what you don’t even want?

Here’s Jearlyn singing it in the movie.

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GK,

Although I was raised Lutheran and taken to church every Sunday of my first 18 years, I do not know the hymn It Is Well with My Soul. I even sang in the Augsburg College Choir (check out Dr. Leland B. Sateren’s compositions for some good inspiration). Here is a link to Seek Not Afar for Beauty, one of my favorites:

Anyway ... I have been listening to various renditions of this hymn on YouTube, which brings me to my question. Do you ever attempt to hum or sing along to a song you don’t know and find that a lot of it comes out right? Is it just the predictability of a traditional-style song or a hymn’s musical makeup? Sometimes I get the words right.

Lois

I sing bass, Lois, so it’s pretty easy to sing along with music you don’t know. You just sing the bottom of the chord and if you’re off-key nobody notices because your voice is down under the floorboards. GK

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Dear Garrison,

I’m glad to hear that you walked away from evangelicals because they continued to support the crook long after he was exposed as a con man. But I don’t understand why they continue their allegiance to a crook in the face of mountains of evidence. Or do they know that he’s a crook, but don’t care? If that’s the case, how are they considered religious? 

Clay Blasdel

Buffalo

I walked away from fundamentalism when I was 20 because the group I grew up in was so utterly joyless. That was long before the con man came on the scene. I know plenty of good people who support him and I don’t try to figure that out; it’s a matter between them and the Lord. The deeper problem, I think, is widespread ingratitude, evident on both the left and the right, for this good country, the culture, the music, the literature, the opportunities, the civility. GK

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Dear Garrison,

My husband and I traveled to Bayfield, Wisconsin, to see your show (8/27/23) Prairie Home and Friends. We enjoyed every moment of it! You are an amazing storyteller and I love listening to your duets!

I recently wrote to you (on your blog) and I regret telling you, “I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat — and to stick to what your good at! Storytelling!!!” Sorry Garrison. I had no business TELLING you what to write about on your blog!!!!

Take care! Hope you’ll forgive my moment of selfish admonishment.

Patti B.

No need for apology. The blog is an open platform. I’m glad to hear your honest opinion. I enjoyed that Bayfield show too. I love singing with Heather Masse. GK

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I bought the book Cheerfulness and enjoyed it. I signed up for the upcoming Tennessee show only to cancel since I have no interest in anti-Trump tirades.

Paul Charbonnet

Asheville, North Carolina

I don’t do tirades on my show, only in the column, since people can easily delete the column but they’ve paid for the seat at the show and it’s unfair to make them want to walk out. My tirades at the show are about cheerfulness and about the benefits of old age and longevity, and I recite my favorite poems, reminisce about my people, sing with the audience, and do the news from Lake Wobegon. But I’m sure there are plenty of things to do in Asheville and hope you enjoy your evening. GK

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Mr. Keillor,

I’ve got all your books, and I look forward to each new one. Recently, I retired from my job in a foundry, where I worked for approximately 45 years (I’m 65 now). Anyway, I’ve decided, since I’ve got more time on my hands, to reread some of your older books, which I haven’t read in many years. I just finished WLT — A Radio Romance, and I just had to tell you that I’m blown away by it. It’s been a long time since I read it last, but I’m glad to refresh my memory. Like many people, I suppose, I’ve always been partial to anything related to Lake Wobegon, which this isn’t, but this was just so enjoyable to read, I just might read it again! I love it, I think it, and you, are brilliant. You’ve enriched my life tremendously for a very long time with your writing and your recordings. Thank you!

Bob Buckridge

Thank you, sir. I never read that book except in the course of writing it and proofreading — never sat down and read it for pleasure — and you’ve made me very curious what I’d think of it now. Thanks for the motivation. GK

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GK,

Like you, I find it easy most days to be cheerful. My bride has helped me recover from yet another surgery to address the ravages of old age. Medicare has kept me out of the poor house and my pension and Social Security benefits keep coming to sustain a very pleasant retirement even as the world burns. Our four kids are devoted to professions in education and health care and most of our seven grandkids are healthy and half are above average. So, what might the fortunate like us say to those in Hawaii who are picking through ashes to find a remnant of their former life or to those living on the streets in this exceptional nation? Is there a chapter in your cheerful book for them?

Roy Voltaire 

Vidor, Texas

My thesis is that cheerfulness is a choice, that even in grief and misery one can find an upbeat mood, maybe start by faking it and eventually it becomes real. But I do not tell people to be cheerful. I certainly don’t tell victims of disaster to be happy. But I do see and admire that certain amazing resilience in people, such as the friend who walks around with a newborn infant on her chest nursing while she doles out meds to her little boy recovering from cancer and looks after her husband suffering from COVID and somehow manages to be upbeat.

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Garrison,

I’m an old fan who listened to your morning radio program in the Cities. I left Minnesota in 1979 for a job in Chicago and never left. I had not seen a show in years but went to Bayfield and had a wonderful time. I have noticed that you are now doing shows all over Wisconsin and would simply suggest that your Minnesota boycott is getting obvious. I know that you have said that you could not fill the large venues in Minneapolis or St. Paul (which I doubt), but there are places all over the state that would welcome you, including Winona, Rochester, St. Cloud, and many others. I think it’s time to end the boycott before it’s too late. 

That’s it. Stay Cheerful.

Mike Heiges

The show started in St. Paul, did hundreds of shows around the state, and I am naturally leery of overstaying my welcome. I’d love to go back to Moorhead or the ballpark in Avon or the lakefront in Duluth, but like every other act, it only goes where there’s a promoter who wants it. GK

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Dear Garrison,

I have found a new way to find cheerfulness. As a runner, I’ve started going without earbuds and I focus on the sounds and smells around me, which brings fresh clarity to my busy mind. How do you find peace and clarity? Is it only through attending church and worship, or do you have other words of wisdom for us?

Debra Messing

Atlanta, Georgia

I don’t claim to have clarity, literal or figurative. I am pestered by double vision, nearsightedness, blurriness, and I get some clarity by leaning in toward the computer screen and also by sitting quietly next to my wife and holding her hand. I don’t get to do this for long periods because she’s restless, likes to go hiking, be busy, visit museums, whereas I’m a writer with a number of projects underway, none of which will ever be finished to my satisfaction. That’s the nature of writing: nothing is ever good enough. Work helps me keep sorrow at bay and there’s a vast supply of sorrow when you’ve made as many mistakes in life as I’ve made: I have to keep closing the door on them and live in the present, such as this paragraph I’m writing to you. I go to church because it’s the mountaintop that gets you above the daily noise and you thank the Maker for this life and join your voice to the others and are called back to fundamental principles. And afterward I walk home, a changed man or at least awakened. GK

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Good day to you, Garrison.

I’ve never, to my knowledge, experienced temporary aphasia, but since you have, I was curious how you feel about it. I’m retired and 67 and was a military aviator prior to that. Loss of consciousness could be disastrous if a pilot experienced it during a critical phase of flight, which is why the FAA mandated retirement for pilots at age 65. (They’re considering raising it to 67.) It concerns me particularly when I think of the elderliness of so many of our leaders, particularly the two leading candidates for president. I would value your thoughts.

Willie K.

Florida

I’ve had a couple bouts of freezing, being unable to produce speech, one at home in the middle of talking to my wife, one on a stage in Riverhead, Long Island, toward the end of a solo show. It’s a very strange feeling but mine ended about a minute later. It seems to have done no damage so far as I or my wife can see. My neurologist upped my daily dosage of an anti-seizure med, Keppra, in hope it will help prevent a recurrence, but there are no guarantees, of course. Old age does have its hazards, but so does youth, especially when it comes to leadership. My old boss Bill Kling, the man who hired me and changed my life, is my age and I think he’s wiser and more capable now than when we each were 27 and he gave me a job. It really does come down to individuals. My older brother, Philip, who held our family together, died at 71 from a brain injury suffered when he fell while skating, and I miss him keenly still. He was five years older and now I’m ten years ahead of him, and he was a helmsman and the loss is palpable. My friend George Latimer who is 86, is sort of an older brother to me, and Sue Weil, who’s 90, but I dread the day when I’m the last survivor. And now I realize that I’ve drifted away from your question, which is a tendency with old people, but so is caution, and your question was trying to lead me into the political quagmire, and I’ve avoided that, thank goodness, and thanks for your appreciation of my thoughts. GK

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