Except he isn't Lutheran (unlike us "real" Lutherans), never was, and is just now admitting he's Episcopalian, born and raised in the Plymouth Brethren. He's a great observer of persons and their culture and is able to write about us, our personalities, plusses and minuses, and the Minnesota culture.
We are the beneficiaries of your mother’s praise, because you saw goodness and approval in her laughter. And if we are in need of anything, it’s support, forgiveness, and some joy.
I played it repeatedly on my old early morning show on KSJN as a joke, as an irritant, the repettition of the repettitive chorus, and so many people came to love it. Odd how this works.
Thank you GK for a wonderful read. A snarky dog puppet aside - thoughts of triumph are indeed better left to revenge-obsessed candidates for office. May he rest- please Lord let him rest.
Great rift. The use of the word “triumph” is a bit much. Their either self righteous, highly competitive or CA elitists. I was married in CA when I was in graduate school. A bunch of my fellow curious grad students attended the church service. My roommate/best man popped a champagne bottle - the cork hit my grad professor in the face. Thank God I was still awarded a degree. 43 years later, my bride and l are still blissfully in love, living in the mid-west. She typed and typed and typed my thesis, so I am still happily beholding to her forever.
My wife and I were married in a medium-sized church wedding 62 years ago in Minneapolis with the typical church ladies reception in the basement. My wife was a music ed major, didn't want to teach it, and became an excellent executive secretary. She supported us through my senior year in college and in grad school. She quit her last job to type my PhD thesis. We were married for 55-1/2 wonderful years. She passed away 7 years ago.
Last week I had a terrible fall that left me with two broken fingers and a nasty gash in the palm of my hand. So making it up and down the fifteen brick steps that lead to my front door is a triumph each day when I walk the dog. It’s a triumph because I’m especially risk adverse since I fell. And it wasn’t the first time I needed stitches.
Perhaps we define triumph differently, beyond what the dictionary provides.
My life has been a battlefield. I suffer from depression, social anxiety, PTSD and OCD (H I J K L M N O P…)
But every Saturday night for years, I was invited into the Chatterbox Cafe, Guy Noir’s world and church breakfasts in the basement of the Lutheran Church in Lake Wobegon from my kitchen table with my cup of tea, and that just made me happy, a state of mind I usually have to fight for.
I’m sorry that you feel you’ve achieved no triumphs considering the value you place on the importance of cheerfulness.
You consistently provided it, which cut through my sometimes exhausting struggles. I am only one person. I am certain I am not alone.
So please reconsider. Triumph is indeed underrated.
I'm glad that APHC made you happy once a week for years. I hope that you listen to the old episodes that are offered every week - I see the announcements of them on Facebook.
Your comment about the alphabetical maladies reminded me of something that happened to many years ago in kindergarten. Another girl and I got into a fight because she insisted that "elemenohpee" was a single letter of the alphabet and I argued that L, M, N, O and P were 5 separate letters. A few other kids backed me up, but the teacher had to separate us when we came to blows over it. I was very happy and felt vindicated when she announced to the class that I had been correct.
I don’t do Facebook but I enjoy reading his books more than once. I went to see him do a show in Lexington, MA but we had seats in the back so it was hard to hear him, which was frustrating.
I got into a fight in kindergarten but it was over a Barbie doll fishing ensemble that I caught Brenda Deneau stealing red handed and it did come to blows. Not a pretty picture.
I attended a wedding with my former flame at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens decades ago. It was a summer afternoon in July. I was soaked from the heat. I was there because my older dark haired goddess invited me. There was one problem. Somehow, also my estranged friend from Marist College appeared as well. Well, I was distracted. I still had latent feelings for her. My lover was not pleased. It was all over before the relationship was consummated. Weddings are dandy and you learn to adapt to the romantic ambiance. I suppose I still regret things. Both parties are outside my Universe now. True love is elusive. If you catch it like a lucky star, it's golden. I'm older now like most my peers. Experience is sweeter whenever you discover love the first time.
"Triumphed may be overworked but as commented on, we all hopefully have experience minor triumphs. Soon to be 83, I look back on mine, having received an excellent training and education even though I was not always the best (my folks always said I was smart and I was, but never the smartest). I think I was the best at what I did in the profession ended up in (still "semi-retired" although I no longer make at money at it, still having too much fun). I was married to a wonderful woman, the love of my life, for 55-1/2 years until she passed away 7 years ago. She was also my business partner for many years and a wonderful parent to our two adopted kids.
Perhaps your "Triumph" is hidden from you, Dear DEMOCRAT Host, but it means the world to many of us "Democrats in foreign Republican Lands!" The first time I drove back to my father's house in Upstate New York, after doing volunteer work as a librarian in a Russian Orthodox Seminary/
Monastery, my radio dial scanner stopped immediately as it caught the "News from Lake Woebegon!"
A DEMOCRAT! PRAISE THE LORD! A VOICE IN THE UPSTATE REPUBLICAN WILDERNESS! YESSSSSSS!
For us, you're the Lifeline, the Lifesaver's ring cast into the sea of political obduracy! Your Values are so much akin to my values - especially when it comes to honoring those who are of different financial, sociological or religious natures than those who are immediately around us!
Perhaps, being a Brethren Boy in a heterogeneous world had something to do with it. Whatever it was, I don't think I've ever come across anyone else with as strong a sense of "Inclusivity" as you have!
I’m looking for a past comment, and ran across this line here” I shrink form extravagant praise and try to fend it off.” Suddenly I thought of the “family order- older sister, younger brother” paradigm! I was an older sister with a younger brother, who hardly made it into this world. He had pneumonia 4 times before he was 4 years old. The family called him “Little Ricky” for years. I was a “straight A” student and he struggled to pass each year. I was “competitive,” but with his illnesses, he got much more of the attention than I did. In retrospect, I wish I had been kinder and more of a friend to him.
There’s something about APHC that’s so family oriented – I wish I could have grown up in those families myself! To me, “Extravagant praise” has nothing to do with it! The show gives us a chance to remake our own pasts, somehow! As a “younger brother of an older sister,” you can chart things that my own brother was probably feeling! “Potato Butt!” OMG! I listened to that episode while I was at my farm. Several Mexican workers and I were harvesting black Spanish radishes. They’re maybe 3 times the size of an average potato, but I could visualize the scene! Sibling rivalry! My brother had life-long medical problems, and had died by then. Time and time again, listening to the show – I wished I had been a kinder, better sister when I was young!
A wonderful way to start my day thank you for sharing this
Loved the column!
The more of your work I read the more it occurs to me how very Lutheran you are. After all, takes one to know one. :)
Forgive me, but hasn't GK cleared up the misconception that he was ever Lutheran? Unless you mean "Lutheran".
Except he isn't Lutheran (unlike us "real" Lutherans), never was, and is just now admitting he's Episcopalian, born and raised in the Plymouth Brethren. He's a great observer of persons and their culture and is able to write about us, our personalities, plusses and minuses, and the Minnesota culture.
The best part of my day is reading the wisdom of Mr. GK. So excited to see him in Atlanta, GA tomorrow!!! Any chance I could get a picture?
You'll have to tell that joke in full again now Mr Keillor! (I wasn't at the Fringe...)
I'll try to remember it.
We are the beneficiaries of your mother’s praise, because you saw goodness and approval in her laughter. And if we are in need of anything, it’s support, forgiveness, and some joy.
Otherwise, he would have been gaslighted.
Please write about "Help me Rhonda." It got me through many difficult mornings!
I played it repeatedly on my old early morning show on KSJN as a joke, as an irritant, the repettition of the repettitive chorus, and so many people came to love it. Odd how this works.
Thank you GK for a wonderful read. A snarky dog puppet aside - thoughts of triumph are indeed better left to revenge-obsessed candidates for office. May he rest- please Lord let him rest.
Great rift. The use of the word “triumph” is a bit much. Their either self righteous, highly competitive or CA elitists. I was married in CA when I was in graduate school. A bunch of my fellow curious grad students attended the church service. My roommate/best man popped a champagne bottle - the cork hit my grad professor in the face. Thank God I was still awarded a degree. 43 years later, my bride and l are still blissfully in love, living in the mid-west. She typed and typed and typed my thesis, so I am still happily beholding to her forever.
My wife and I were married in a medium-sized church wedding 62 years ago in Minneapolis with the typical church ladies reception in the basement. My wife was a music ed major, didn't want to teach it, and became an excellent executive secretary. She supported us through my senior year in college and in grad school. She quit her last job to type my PhD thesis. We were married for 55-1/2 wonderful years. She passed away 7 years ago.
Bravo.L'chaim.
Wonderful observations and contrasts....as always.
A day without words from Garrison is like a day without sunshine!
"Gradually became aware that some people enjoyed this, which gave me a sense of usefulness"
Methinks either he doth protest too much, or the Brethren gave him a specially heavy dose of Original Sin.
Last week I had a terrible fall that left me with two broken fingers and a nasty gash in the palm of my hand. So making it up and down the fifteen brick steps that lead to my front door is a triumph each day when I walk the dog. It’s a triumph because I’m especially risk adverse since I fell. And it wasn’t the first time I needed stitches.
Perhaps we define triumph differently, beyond what the dictionary provides.
My life has been a battlefield. I suffer from depression, social anxiety, PTSD and OCD (H I J K L M N O P…)
But every Saturday night for years, I was invited into the Chatterbox Cafe, Guy Noir’s world and church breakfasts in the basement of the Lutheran Church in Lake Wobegon from my kitchen table with my cup of tea, and that just made me happy, a state of mind I usually have to fight for.
I’m sorry that you feel you’ve achieved no triumphs considering the value you place on the importance of cheerfulness.
You consistently provided it, which cut through my sometimes exhausting struggles. I am only one person. I am certain I am not alone.
So please reconsider. Triumph is indeed underrated.
I'm glad that APHC made you happy once a week for years. I hope that you listen to the old episodes that are offered every week - I see the announcements of them on Facebook.
Your comment about the alphabetical maladies reminded me of something that happened to many years ago in kindergarten. Another girl and I got into a fight because she insisted that "elemenohpee" was a single letter of the alphabet and I argued that L, M, N, O and P were 5 separate letters. A few other kids backed me up, but the teacher had to separate us when we came to blows over it. I was very happy and felt vindicated when she announced to the class that I had been correct.
I don’t do Facebook but I enjoy reading his books more than once. I went to see him do a show in Lexington, MA but we had seats in the back so it was hard to hear him, which was frustrating.
I got into a fight in kindergarten but it was over a Barbie doll fishing ensemble that I caught Brenda Deneau stealing red handed and it did come to blows. Not a pretty picture.
Michelle, an ol ditty my dad used to delight in writing for us kids....
ABCD Puppies?
LMRNO Puppies!
MR2 Puppies,
CMP?
And he'd laff and laff....
I attended a wedding with my former flame at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens decades ago. It was a summer afternoon in July. I was soaked from the heat. I was there because my older dark haired goddess invited me. There was one problem. Somehow, also my estranged friend from Marist College appeared as well. Well, I was distracted. I still had latent feelings for her. My lover was not pleased. It was all over before the relationship was consummated. Weddings are dandy and you learn to adapt to the romantic ambiance. I suppose I still regret things. Both parties are outside my Universe now. True love is elusive. If you catch it like a lucky star, it's golden. I'm older now like most my peers. Experience is sweeter whenever you discover love the first time.
"Triumphed may be overworked but as commented on, we all hopefully have experience minor triumphs. Soon to be 83, I look back on mine, having received an excellent training and education even though I was not always the best (my folks always said I was smart and I was, but never the smartest). I think I was the best at what I did in the profession ended up in (still "semi-retired" although I no longer make at money at it, still having too much fun). I was married to a wonderful woman, the love of my life, for 55-1/2 years until she passed away 7 years ago. She was also my business partner for many years and a wonderful parent to our two adopted kids.
Perhaps your "Triumph" is hidden from you, Dear DEMOCRAT Host, but it means the world to many of us "Democrats in foreign Republican Lands!" The first time I drove back to my father's house in Upstate New York, after doing volunteer work as a librarian in a Russian Orthodox Seminary/
Monastery, my radio dial scanner stopped immediately as it caught the "News from Lake Woebegon!"
A DEMOCRAT! PRAISE THE LORD! A VOICE IN THE UPSTATE REPUBLICAN WILDERNESS! YESSSSSSS!
For us, you're the Lifeline, the Lifesaver's ring cast into the sea of political obduracy! Your Values are so much akin to my values - especially when it comes to honoring those who are of different financial, sociological or religious natures than those who are immediately around us!
Perhaps, being a Brethren Boy in a heterogeneous world had something to do with it. Whatever it was, I don't think I've ever come across anyone else with as strong a sense of "Inclusivity" as you have!
I’m looking for a past comment, and ran across this line here” I shrink form extravagant praise and try to fend it off.” Suddenly I thought of the “family order- older sister, younger brother” paradigm! I was an older sister with a younger brother, who hardly made it into this world. He had pneumonia 4 times before he was 4 years old. The family called him “Little Ricky” for years. I was a “straight A” student and he struggled to pass each year. I was “competitive,” but with his illnesses, he got much more of the attention than I did. In retrospect, I wish I had been kinder and more of a friend to him.
There’s something about APHC that’s so family oriented – I wish I could have grown up in those families myself! To me, “Extravagant praise” has nothing to do with it! The show gives us a chance to remake our own pasts, somehow! As a “younger brother of an older sister,” you can chart things that my own brother was probably feeling! “Potato Butt!” OMG! I listened to that episode while I was at my farm. Several Mexican workers and I were harvesting black Spanish radishes. They’re maybe 3 times the size of an average potato, but I could visualize the scene! Sibling rivalry! My brother had life-long medical problems, and had died by then. Time and time again, listening to the show – I wished I had been a kinder, better sister when I was young!