Podcast 20 — I pack them back in a box and leave it for the movers and I walk out the door, never to return, and head for the airport, looking forward to new confusions, life having been clarified...
Donald Hall wrote an endearing memoir "Unpacking the Boxes" and now you have added your special voice to the memories we accumulate through our possessions and the 'files' in our hearts and minds. I want to hold the past while embracing the future; I tell myself it is not an impossible goal.
You have found that sweet place where you have let go, and maybe living in the present is thrilling enough. You not only told us stories and invited us to sing and laugh, but you are now letting us know that we too can pare down and enjoy the view. The past led us here, but it doesn’t have to burden us.
I once watched a programme on Minimalism which I streamed on Netflix. I wondered about the quantity of my personal things. Ephemera like ticket stubs of pop/rock concerts long forgotten, a few sports-related items, a caderie of vinyl records which I have collected dust and faded memories, and other run on sentences. I think about all these possessions especially the books I've read and store on a bookshelf. How novel. Sighs. All of these things won't travel with me into the afterlife so I must value them in the present. Letting go is like learning how to breathe properly like the yogis in daily meditation. I admire you GK. We might not share the same beliefs or value systems. I wish I exuded more goodness instead of explaining why I voted for Trump and consider myself a sensible, loyal Republican. Religion is a taboo subject for my family. As a Catholic, I was taught to fear my sins. It wasn't just masturbation, premature sex and penance. Poetry steered me away from a chaste lifestyle. One day, I'd like to thank all the folks that helped me along this surreal, difficult road. Strangers aren't so strange methinks. Goodnight to thee. May your dreams aim to be true and deep as any river.
Sex is a finger snap these days, although it is not the finger. It’s us men who provoke the woman we may or may not really care for, let alone love. “Wham, bam mam” some cited. Plus was this ditty: “Today is the day we give babies away for a pound and a half of tea. So, if you know any ladies who want to have babies, send them around to me.” If that’s not gross what is. What’s more gross is these careless copulations and impregnations without protection or contraceptions. What’s more gross to many is the millions of abortions of humankind happening as an afterthought. BIO 101 tells us otherwise.
So, take a different cruise ship or have a way-cool tattoo on your forehead that reads, “Condoms Or None!”
I first learned of Garrison when I was 26 and moved to St. Paul in 1973. He was doing the morning show then with Jim Ed Poole. In January he did his first Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul and I went to that show. I have followed him since, and I hope to keep listening and reading.
Remorse? That the show wasn't better than it was? OMG! You missed the train somewhere! I think that one of the most charming things about A Prairie Home Companion was it's NATURALNESS! I generally listened to the program while I was driving home from volunteer work at a Seminary/ Monastery. It was so refreshing to encounter "Real Folks!" The folks at the café - there was a waitress in Santa Monica, where I used to go to take in the sea air on Saturday mornings, Olga, who could have been your model to imitate! And the husband driving away from the diner without his wife, assuming she was asleep in the back seat: that surely could have happened in real life!
There are times when "Perfection is TOO MUCH!" Your show came from your HEART - and that was it's Pride and Joy! Whether it's the heart you were born with, or Wilbur's, doesn't matter nearly s much, as the fact that You're Still Here - Just Being YOU! Thanks so much for keeping the communication lines open! We need to revive those memories - to take them out of the boxes, just as you do!
I do love my small collection of mementos, but so many have been lost to fire. That singular incident taught me to let everything go. So I suppose the the pleasure of moving for me is getting rid of so many things that have been hovering in drawers and the backs of closets, to lighten the load just a bit. But, I would dearly love a letter from a beloved aunt chastising me for bad behavior!
Donald Hall wrote an endearing memoir "Unpacking the Boxes" and now you have added your special voice to the memories we accumulate through our possessions and the 'files' in our hearts and minds. I want to hold the past while embracing the future; I tell myself it is not an impossible goal.
You have found that sweet place where you have let go, and maybe living in the present is thrilling enough. You not only told us stories and invited us to sing and laugh, but you are now letting us know that we too can pare down and enjoy the view. The past led us here, but it doesn’t have to burden us.
I once watched a programme on Minimalism which I streamed on Netflix. I wondered about the quantity of my personal things. Ephemera like ticket stubs of pop/rock concerts long forgotten, a few sports-related items, a caderie of vinyl records which I have collected dust and faded memories, and other run on sentences. I think about all these possessions especially the books I've read and store on a bookshelf. How novel. Sighs. All of these things won't travel with me into the afterlife so I must value them in the present. Letting go is like learning how to breathe properly like the yogis in daily meditation. I admire you GK. We might not share the same beliefs or value systems. I wish I exuded more goodness instead of explaining why I voted for Trump and consider myself a sensible, loyal Republican. Religion is a taboo subject for my family. As a Catholic, I was taught to fear my sins. It wasn't just masturbation, premature sex and penance. Poetry steered me away from a chaste lifestyle. One day, I'd like to thank all the folks that helped me along this surreal, difficult road. Strangers aren't so strange methinks. Goodnight to thee. May your dreams aim to be true and deep as any river.
You're moving from your Upper Westside apartment? Where are you going?
Thx for sharing your eloquent thoughts on the mundane specialness of our lives...Yep, pare down and be cheerful!
Blessings to you! So glad I got to meet you at Emanuel Lutheran while in Hutchinson for the Kansas State Fair!
Your voice is a calm in today's storm...
Sex is a finger snap these days, although it is not the finger. It’s us men who provoke the woman we may or may not really care for, let alone love. “Wham, bam mam” some cited. Plus was this ditty: “Today is the day we give babies away for a pound and a half of tea. So, if you know any ladies who want to have babies, send them around to me.” If that’s not gross what is. What’s more gross is these careless copulations and impregnations without protection or contraceptions. What’s more gross to many is the millions of abortions of humankind happening as an afterthought. BIO 101 tells us otherwise.
So, take a different cruise ship or have a way-cool tattoo on your forehead that reads, “Condoms Or None!”
Something major is missing here, whether you agree or not. Let's move on....
MY first reaction to this letter was, “are you going to live by yourself?”
I first learned of Garrison when I was 26 and moved to St. Paul in 1973. He was doing the morning show then with Jim Ed Poole. In January he did his first Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul and I went to that show. I have followed him since, and I hope to keep listening and reading.
James Michael Barker
So glad you met Wilbur and he became a part of you.
The rule is, Never Throw Anything Away, Ever.
Remorse? That the show wasn't better than it was? OMG! You missed the train somewhere! I think that one of the most charming things about A Prairie Home Companion was it's NATURALNESS! I generally listened to the program while I was driving home from volunteer work at a Seminary/ Monastery. It was so refreshing to encounter "Real Folks!" The folks at the café - there was a waitress in Santa Monica, where I used to go to take in the sea air on Saturday mornings, Olga, who could have been your model to imitate! And the husband driving away from the diner without his wife, assuming she was asleep in the back seat: that surely could have happened in real life!
There are times when "Perfection is TOO MUCH!" Your show came from your HEART - and that was it's Pride and Joy! Whether it's the heart you were born with, or Wilbur's, doesn't matter nearly s much, as the fact that You're Still Here - Just Being YOU! Thanks so much for keeping the communication lines open! We need to revive those memories - to take them out of the boxes, just as you do!
I do love my small collection of mementos, but so many have been lost to fire. That singular incident taught me to let everything go. So I suppose the the pleasure of moving for me is getting rid of so many things that have been hovering in drawers and the backs of closets, to lighten the load just a bit. But, I would dearly love a letter from a beloved aunt chastising me for bad behavior!