Podcast 13 = We’ve lost the presumption of innocence, which is the basis of civility, the assumption that others mean well and want to do the right thing, unless they prove otherwise.
By sheer fortuitous good luck I checked my email, saw this podcast and tuned in at exactly 6 p.m. on this Saturday night. Boy, did this bring back memories. "Oh, hear that old piano from down the avenue, I smell the onions, I look around for you..." Proust and his madeleines have nothing on me...
Nothing can take the place of the brilliant (were they or were they not extemporaneous?) Lake Wobegon monologues but something (here) is better than nothing.
“How Great Thou Art” was a theme song in the Billy Graham “Crusades” of the 1950s. Can we now expect to get altar calls from you in response to this sentimental claptrap?
Thanks, Arnold. My sentiments as well. I know GK likes the "vibe" of group singing but his continued references to the hymn, "How Great Thou Art" are wearing thin. At one time in life I was the choir director for a fledgling Presbyterian congregation getting started using a local grade school room as a place to congregate. There was me in front of about six singers waving my arms. We sang "How Great Thou Art" and I can tell you it wasn't great. Billy Graham was the Elmer Gantry of the day back then - just one of the many wavy haired money hounds who have come before and after living high on the hog on the backs of their "flocks".
I hear the lyrics to "How Great Thou Art" more as a "love song" to nature, to Earth, to the magnificent blessings we humans enjoy just by virtue of being alive - and yet so many are quite comfortable despoiling and destroying those gifts. Maybe a good "sing-along" would wake them up. I think that hymn could be paired with singing "What A Wonderful World," a song that also can grab an open, still beating heart.
One wonders if Earth would be reeling and roiling from the things humans have done to bring it all to ruin if more folks had joined up to sing "How Great Thou Art" and "What A Wonderful World" and maybe let's add (Joni Mitchell's) "Yellow Taxi" (you pave paradise and put up a parking lot...don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone....") or John Prine's "Paradise" .... lots of "hymns" to be sung and felt and loved; why close up your mind and heart to any of them?
Trouble is, the Christian evangelists think that "What a Wonderfull World," Joni, and Prine are secular, and thus non-Christian, and thus sinful. Even the "How Great Thou Art" lyrics yearn for a "savior" from mortal life, and for Jesus to come and take them "home" to Heaven, because earth is not where they want to be.
* So atheists like me are "stone-cold" are they, Garrison?
I sense that GK at 81 is really affected by the reality of his own mortality...but aren't we all?
I don't doubt his "authenticity" with regards to his faith.
And the authenticity he finds in church is an expression of people with a common belief system feeling good being together as much as actually believing in their belief.
This atheist should be reading Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett....not someone who thinks atheists are "stone cold". What am I doing reading this guy?!?
In the end, before too long, we will all be stone cold.
And that truth is why men always invent a friend in the sky. It’s just so sad that the friendship always requires earthly payment in exchange for a promise of eternal bliss. Seems lamentably transactional to me.
I’m Episcopalian. I appreciate your emotional experience and I marvel at the image of jubilation, hands held high. We had a wonderful reverend from New Zealand, long ago. One Sunday he challenged us to let go and sing joyously. He emphasized that we needn’t be perfect, but we must be joyful. He sang off key and so did I. Joyfully.
Nothing like a roomful of folks singing joyfully off key to light a fire under the spirit! How does one sing "off key" along with others singing "off key" and know who's off key and whose on key? Does the resulting cacophony add to the joyfulness? Maybe so. As a church choir director for a short period of my musical life, I might have been missing an opportunity.
I, for one am not a typical New Yorker or whatever that is. I compliment people on their footwear as well as their politeness in supermarkets. It isn't easy to be this sweet-natured. I know that each day has its share of trials, tribulations, triumphs and setbacks. I am sensitive. I only know that the human race lives a fragile existence. I try not to speak about religion or politics with my co-workers. It leads to more conflict. People have strong opinions methinks. Perhaps they were shaped by the hymns at Sunday Mass or the generations before them who rarely complained despite the hardships. I believe in true simplicity yet is quite difficult to attain. This podcast beams into our ears and transports us to experiences which satisfy the coldest of soul.
“How Great Thou Art” brings back a lot of memories from childhood of Sunday mornings at the Foursquare Gospel in Los Angeles, Friday night choir practice, tiny Sister Little stretching to reach the piano pedals -- a force of nature while playing. Never at ease in church -- the racism, intolerance and thinly veiled exceptionalism was not inclusive -- but the singing was fun. Very much enjoy listening to Garrison Keillor’s New York experiences.
We do have to stand up and stick up for ourselves, whether it's a mean older, kicking sister, or a bully on our block. My brother and I didn't have an older sister, but we did have eaach other. When a block-bad kid kept picking on her, we confronted him by the corner and told him to cease, or else. He laughed and said, "Which one of ya is gonna try to take me first?" We closed into his "comfort circle" and said, "We are!" Brother Al knelt on his chest and arms. I knelt on his groin. We never had to hit him, then or later. Peace encompassed our block. Just like peace encompassed you church-goers and song-singers....sung out "How Great Thou Art!" - Amen
That sounded like Tim Russell on the quick pitch at the end. I just thought about him the other day and wondered what he was up to nowadays. I’ve always thought that he was a talented entertainer and hope he’s doing well.
It makes me want to write my 30-something niece who said, “Just believe her,” when I questioned one #ee’s offense in proportion to the punishment, but I won’t.
I also don’t advocate in favor of the sort of abuse that I took and laughed along with in every workplace I was in back in the day. But women don’t get to be both equal and delicate flowers, sez the woman who was emotionally scarred by assault, so maybe it’s all good and men will get the light through lawsuits filed years later, not learn from real time training. That doesn’t work well with dogs, but maybe men are different. I wonder, and even mourn what one man lost—and the many he gave full employment to, and their families—but also for what I lost when I was supposed to shun someone whom I respected and admired. Similarly, Kirsten Gillibrand is currently impressing me with what she’s up to, but every time I think of Al Franken vs. Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor, and what good things that might have meant for America, I get angry again.
Rather, I let my mind wander to a wife, curling up in silent comfort on her husband’s lap, facing the darkness behind, and the darkness ahead, together, in love after 30 years, and, somehow, it comforts me too.
What a Fantastic Piece! As you walked along, similar folks would pop out of my memories as if I had been with them five minutes ago! The cashier who called you "My Dear!" She also works on the New York side of the Saint Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands! Those few words of "closeness" made my Day - maybe even my Month! Your wife could be my daughters, when they were young -so spontaneous! And the "Gays." When I was assigned to a Grand Jury for six months, one of our fellow jurors was an "openly" Gay. And by that, I mean he opened his Gay heart to all of us, we got to see the world as he saw it. I think the handful of us in his group changed our opinions of "gays" completely, thanks to his "Open Window!!" The Walmart? The monks at their monastery on the hill above the river valley would drive down to the Walmart, in Cossacks and all, and go in to buy everyday things. As for the Condo Tower - When I was in Ontario, I stayed near the Lake shore. They built a Condo Tower near the shoreline, and the entire neighborhood was "Up In Revolt!"
This piece is SO FANTASTIC! I'll bet that many of your other readers are having similar snapshots of their recent lives running through your parable as well!
By sheer fortuitous good luck I checked my email, saw this podcast and tuned in at exactly 6 p.m. on this Saturday night. Boy, did this bring back memories. "Oh, hear that old piano from down the avenue, I smell the onions, I look around for you..." Proust and his madeleines have nothing on me...
Nothing can take the place of the brilliant (were they or were they not extemporaneous?) Lake Wobegon monologues but something (here) is better than nothing.
I smell the lilacs and....
“How Great Thou Art” was a theme song in the Billy Graham “Crusades” of the 1950s. Can we now expect to get altar calls from you in response to this sentimental claptrap?
Thanks, Arnold. My sentiments as well. I know GK likes the "vibe" of group singing but his continued references to the hymn, "How Great Thou Art" are wearing thin. At one time in life I was the choir director for a fledgling Presbyterian congregation getting started using a local grade school room as a place to congregate. There was me in front of about six singers waving my arms. We sang "How Great Thou Art" and I can tell you it wasn't great. Billy Graham was the Elmer Gantry of the day back then - just one of the many wavy haired money hounds who have come before and after living high on the hog on the backs of their "flocks".
Wow. Oscar Wilde would have a word to say to you, Dave.
Try Elmer Gantry, another one-sermon guy
I hear the lyrics to "How Great Thou Art" more as a "love song" to nature, to Earth, to the magnificent blessings we humans enjoy just by virtue of being alive - and yet so many are quite comfortable despoiling and destroying those gifts. Maybe a good "sing-along" would wake them up. I think that hymn could be paired with singing "What A Wonderful World," a song that also can grab an open, still beating heart.
One wonders if Earth would be reeling and roiling from the things humans have done to bring it all to ruin if more folks had joined up to sing "How Great Thou Art" and "What A Wonderful World" and maybe let's add (Joni Mitchell's) "Yellow Taxi" (you pave paradise and put up a parking lot...don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone....") or John Prine's "Paradise" .... lots of "hymns" to be sung and felt and loved; why close up your mind and heart to any of them?
Trouble is, the Christian evangelists think that "What a Wonderfull World," Joni, and Prine are secular, and thus non-Christian, and thus sinful. Even the "How Great Thou Art" lyrics yearn for a "savior" from mortal life, and for Jesus to come and take them "home" to Heaven, because earth is not where they want to be.
Ouch! Harsh!
* So atheists like me are "stone-cold" are they, Garrison?
I sense that GK at 81 is really affected by the reality of his own mortality...but aren't we all?
I don't doubt his "authenticity" with regards to his faith.
And the authenticity he finds in church is an expression of people with a common belief system feeling good being together as much as actually believing in their belief.
This atheist should be reading Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett....not someone who thinks atheists are "stone cold". What am I doing reading this guy?!?
In the end, before too long, we will all be stone cold.
And that truth is why men always invent a friend in the sky. It’s just so sad that the friendship always requires earthly payment in exchange for a promise of eternal bliss. Seems lamentably transactional to me.
I’m Episcopalian. I appreciate your emotional experience and I marvel at the image of jubilation, hands held high. We had a wonderful reverend from New Zealand, long ago. One Sunday he challenged us to let go and sing joyously. He emphasized that we needn’t be perfect, but we must be joyful. He sang off key and so did I. Joyfully.
Nothing like a roomful of folks singing joyfully off key to light a fire under the spirit! How does one sing "off key" along with others singing "off key" and know who's off key and whose on key? Does the resulting cacophony add to the joyfulness? Maybe so. As a church choir director for a short period of my musical life, I might have been missing an opportunity.
I, for one am not a typical New Yorker or whatever that is. I compliment people on their footwear as well as their politeness in supermarkets. It isn't easy to be this sweet-natured. I know that each day has its share of trials, tribulations, triumphs and setbacks. I am sensitive. I only know that the human race lives a fragile existence. I try not to speak about religion or politics with my co-workers. It leads to more conflict. People have strong opinions methinks. Perhaps they were shaped by the hymns at Sunday Mass or the generations before them who rarely complained despite the hardships. I believe in true simplicity yet is quite difficult to attain. This podcast beams into our ears and transports us to experiences which satisfy the coldest of soul.
Welcome words!
Yeah sometimes I impress myself. Ego needs flogging here & there.
“How Great Thou Art” brings back a lot of memories from childhood of Sunday mornings at the Foursquare Gospel in Los Angeles, Friday night choir practice, tiny Sister Little stretching to reach the piano pedals -- a force of nature while playing. Never at ease in church -- the racism, intolerance and thinly veiled exceptionalism was not inclusive -- but the singing was fun. Very much enjoy listening to Garrison Keillor’s New York experiences.
We do have to stand up and stick up for ourselves, whether it's a mean older, kicking sister, or a bully on our block. My brother and I didn't have an older sister, but we did have eaach other. When a block-bad kid kept picking on her, we confronted him by the corner and told him to cease, or else. He laughed and said, "Which one of ya is gonna try to take me first?" We closed into his "comfort circle" and said, "We are!" Brother Al knelt on his chest and arms. I knelt on his groin. We never had to hit him, then or later. Peace encompassed our block. Just like peace encompassed you church-goers and song-singers....sung out "How Great Thou Art!" - Amen
"eaach" means more than each other....
Kudos to your publisher. I didn’t see a single typo in “Cheerfulness.” What are your thoughts about the Oxford comma?
That sounded like Tim Russell on the quick pitch at the end. I just thought about him the other day and wondered what he was up to nowadays. I’ve always thought that he was a talented entertainer and hope he’s doing well.
It makes me want to write my 30-something niece who said, “Just believe her,” when I questioned one #ee’s offense in proportion to the punishment, but I won’t.
I also don’t advocate in favor of the sort of abuse that I took and laughed along with in every workplace I was in back in the day. But women don’t get to be both equal and delicate flowers, sez the woman who was emotionally scarred by assault, so maybe it’s all good and men will get the light through lawsuits filed years later, not learn from real time training. That doesn’t work well with dogs, but maybe men are different. I wonder, and even mourn what one man lost—and the many he gave full employment to, and their families—but also for what I lost when I was supposed to shun someone whom I respected and admired. Similarly, Kirsten Gillibrand is currently impressing me with what she’s up to, but every time I think of Al Franken vs. Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor, and what good things that might have meant for America, I get angry again.
Rather, I let my mind wander to a wife, curling up in silent comfort on her husband’s lap, facing the darkness behind, and the darkness ahead, together, in love after 30 years, and, somehow, it comforts me too.
#enough
(and if that’s a real hashtag, I’m just kidding)
Meredith
What a Fantastic Piece! As you walked along, similar folks would pop out of my memories as if I had been with them five minutes ago! The cashier who called you "My Dear!" She also works on the New York side of the Saint Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands! Those few words of "closeness" made my Day - maybe even my Month! Your wife could be my daughters, when they were young -so spontaneous! And the "Gays." When I was assigned to a Grand Jury for six months, one of our fellow jurors was an "openly" Gay. And by that, I mean he opened his Gay heart to all of us, we got to see the world as he saw it. I think the handful of us in his group changed our opinions of "gays" completely, thanks to his "Open Window!!" The Walmart? The monks at their monastery on the hill above the river valley would drive down to the Walmart, in Cossacks and all, and go in to buy everyday things. As for the Condo Tower - When I was in Ontario, I stayed near the Lake shore. They built a Condo Tower near the shoreline, and the entire neighborhood was "Up In Revolt!"
This piece is SO FANTASTIC! I'll bet that many of your other readers are having similar snapshots of their recent lives running through your parable as well!
THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR OBSERVATIONS! WOW!
Pure joythere was singing at the Church with your brethren. That joy comes the closest here on earth to what you'll be singing in Paradise.