One of your best, Garrison… but I enjoy them all. Keep on writing! Lucy, former New Yorker now a 40 yr Concordian but will always consider myself a New Yorker
The beloved author just couldn't do it, apparently. Made it all the way through a delightful essay but then ruined it with an entirely gratuitous political comment. Rather like finding a cockroach in the last bite of an otherwise delicious blueberry pie.
I was kicked-out of shop class also. I never paid attention in Algebra so I was put into an electrical wiring class with the intent, apparently, to turn me into an electrician. Unfortunately I failed the wiring diagram test abysmally.
When I was a kid if something interested me I would put my whole heart into it. And reading interested me. I loved it. I read Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" as a Junior in high school; and Solzhenitsyn was all the rage back then in the mid 1970's so I read "The Gulag Archipelago." But Algebra and shop class didn't interest me.
I eventually got into college, graduated,worked at menial jobs for a while, some involving assembly lines (and the Fredrick Taylor method of turning humans into robots which I resented profoundly) and then went to law school. Now I'm retired. I still love your show Prairie Home Companion. I'm saving up to attend one of your de facto "revival" shows some day. In all the years I listened to you on Saturday evening I never had the opportunity to attend a live show. To do so will be a great joy and pleasure. I am so looking forward to it. See you there!
The prayers of each of us is like a song. Some sing so well it makes us all weep. Mr. Keillor is one such. At funerals and often in weddings we may all see tears and note some running down our own cheeks. What assures is what Garrison reminds us all about. There's a joy in our standing with our arm upraised. That's not required, but it sure does help our all being enabled. Thrones and Dominions angels in heaven just cry out and don't sing. So, let's do it now! My favorite is: "On Eagle's Wings." So it lifts us.....
Garrison and Fellow Readers, I need your assistance.
My two daughters despise christianity and I am not sure where it came from. Perhaps from spending so much time in universities and hanging with extreme liberals, hearing primarily negative headlines, or maybe living in liberal cities like Boston and New Orleans. They do not get exposure to to the benefits that christianity offers society. Things that I see daily living in the rural South. We talk about it and its positive impacts, such as it's central role in the civil rights movement in the 60s, but I can't persuade them to soften their views.
Does anybody have a book recommendation for somebody that is extremely skeptical of chrisianity? My daughters and I exchange book ideas all the time. If somebody here has good recommendation, I would pass it on to them and I know they would read it.
Ok, this has to be said, Garrison, you are admired by thousands of people in this country who come to your shows, and many sing along with you. You are an excellent and interesting writer and sometimes funny. But good grief, stop with your political hate with Trump and others who you politically disagree with! If you must use criticism, please limit it to your current democrats who have created chaos at our southern borders, weakened our rule of law, made our country much more dangerous to live in, and appear not to know how to run out the economy or help end the divide between the left and right! You, sir, are an entertainer, so please continue to entertain, but stop with your liberal lectures and political hate! If my comment is unacceptable, then just become another left-of-center politician and Run for Office! Me, I like the 81-year-old entertainer better :-).
Again, what a lovely post. A post that is full of hope and faith. Your parent’s faith of separatist fundamentalists seems to be fashioned after the Apostle Thomas. It seems to be looking for undeniable proof before committing its faith and life into an idea that might be proofing wrong. The followers want to be able to probe Christ's hand wounds with their finger and his abdominal wound with their hand. They needed concrete proof.
Christ was accommodating to Thomas. He called Thomas to himself and he presented the wounds to Thomas. “Here, Thomas, I want you to be satisfied and have your faith reaffirmed.” Thomas was ashamed for his lack of faith but Christ understood. Christ was a human man. He had a human heart and felt what we felt. Have no doubt, nothing that humans do or say or feel was foreign to Christ.
I also think that Mr. Beuhler was supposed to send you to Speech Class. Maybe you could look him up when you get to the afterlife and ask him. You two could have a laugh or two over that.
As is commonly the phrase in England to describe a thing I like: Brilliant, just brilliant. I especially like your continuing and accurate assessment of the orange grifter. Carry on.
Thankyou, Garrison. You spread joy across the pond to this wet and grey corner of Scotland. The same magic of forgetting while singing applies to reading words on paper ; while I read yours, I forgot about the background hum of unease at the State We're In.
Singing, singing, singing—nothing gets one closer to the ineffable, and closer to one’s harmonizing companions. Sing on, all. Sing like a humpback, sing like a nightingale.
GK, you even got my wife, who has been told all her life she can’t sing (not by me)—to sing her heart out at your Escondido solo show. Please come back to SoCal with the band. Please.
And thank you for holding fast to your political views. This is an existential moment in the U.S.: Decency vs. Dictatorship. To remain silent and to profess the false equivalency is to bury one’s ostrich-brained head deep in the Earth.
Yes, the joy of the renewal and community...two of the mains teachings of his words. I'm a fan of joy, adulation, spontaneous tears. Funny unrelated story...i was registering for my classes in HS...some person thought registering like college students would help us in the future..turned out to be true. I was in a very long line for a class, 'Speech/Reading' and noticed the line for 'Reading/Speech' had only one person in it so I jumped. When I showed up to the class it was funny because there were only 3 or 4 non-Latino students, the rest were Latino (although in 1973 we were cool so would have said Chicano.) I know most of them from a variety of other spaces (tracking was still legal) and we had a great time...although many asked, "What are you doing here?"
I know there was discrimination, tracking, unfair assumptions but here is was, loud and clear! These were smart people, hardworking people from working families...so why?
One of those moments were I was the 'outsider' by the community standard...new experience. Important. So as we think about renewal. about treatment of others, about joy and family, pride and hard work...the values we all share! Although i guess pride in a sin...oh well...being prideful and feeling pride at one's hard work are not the shame things.
But it's the judgement things, they did kick me out as I could read too fast, and I was sent to the Speech Class, as in debate!!! I found my home. And yes there were a couple of Latinas who had too found themselves here with us.
You can debate WOKE...an important observation that simply 'passing laws' was not enough to change the attitudes and actions of systemic racism in our culture. Renewal, joy, sharing...the solstice. You see Easter is a borrowed holiday, they got the dates wrong. The resurrection should too be the equinox and the arrival of Spring.
One of your best, Garrison… but I enjoy them all. Keep on writing! Lucy, former New Yorker now a 40 yr Concordian but will always consider myself a New Yorker
The beloved author just couldn't do it, apparently. Made it all the way through a delightful essay but then ruined it with an entirely gratuitous political comment. Rather like finding a cockroach in the last bite of an otherwise delicious blueberry pie.
Hello Mr. Keillor,
I was kicked-out of shop class also. I never paid attention in Algebra so I was put into an electrical wiring class with the intent, apparently, to turn me into an electrician. Unfortunately I failed the wiring diagram test abysmally.
When I was a kid if something interested me I would put my whole heart into it. And reading interested me. I loved it. I read Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" as a Junior in high school; and Solzhenitsyn was all the rage back then in the mid 1970's so I read "The Gulag Archipelago." But Algebra and shop class didn't interest me.
I eventually got into college, graduated,worked at menial jobs for a while, some involving assembly lines (and the Fredrick Taylor method of turning humans into robots which I resented profoundly) and then went to law school. Now I'm retired. I still love your show Prairie Home Companion. I'm saving up to attend one of your de facto "revival" shows some day. In all the years I listened to you on Saturday evening I never had the opportunity to attend a live show. To do so will be a great joy and pleasure. I am so looking forward to it. See you there!
The prayers of each of us is like a song. Some sing so well it makes us all weep. Mr. Keillor is one such. At funerals and often in weddings we may all see tears and note some running down our own cheeks. What assures is what Garrison reminds us all about. There's a joy in our standing with our arm upraised. That's not required, but it sure does help our all being enabled. Thrones and Dominions angels in heaven just cry out and don't sing. So, let's do it now! My favorite is: "On Eagle's Wings." So it lifts us.....
So reassuring to read your thoughts. Thank you
Garrison and Fellow Readers, I need your assistance.
My two daughters despise christianity and I am not sure where it came from. Perhaps from spending so much time in universities and hanging with extreme liberals, hearing primarily negative headlines, or maybe living in liberal cities like Boston and New Orleans. They do not get exposure to to the benefits that christianity offers society. Things that I see daily living in the rural South. We talk about it and its positive impacts, such as it's central role in the civil rights movement in the 60s, but I can't persuade them to soften their views.
Does anybody have a book recommendation for somebody that is extremely skeptical of chrisianity? My daughters and I exchange book ideas all the time. If somebody here has good recommendation, I would pass it on to them and I know they would read it.
Thanks in advance for your time!!!
Ok, this has to be said, Garrison, you are admired by thousands of people in this country who come to your shows, and many sing along with you. You are an excellent and interesting writer and sometimes funny. But good grief, stop with your political hate with Trump and others who you politically disagree with! If you must use criticism, please limit it to your current democrats who have created chaos at our southern borders, weakened our rule of law, made our country much more dangerous to live in, and appear not to know how to run out the economy or help end the divide between the left and right! You, sir, are an entertainer, so please continue to entertain, but stop with your liberal lectures and political hate! If my comment is unacceptable, then just become another left-of-center politician and Run for Office! Me, I like the 81-year-old entertainer better :-).
Again, what a lovely post. A post that is full of hope and faith. Your parent’s faith of separatist fundamentalists seems to be fashioned after the Apostle Thomas. It seems to be looking for undeniable proof before committing its faith and life into an idea that might be proofing wrong. The followers want to be able to probe Christ's hand wounds with their finger and his abdominal wound with their hand. They needed concrete proof.
Christ was accommodating to Thomas. He called Thomas to himself and he presented the wounds to Thomas. “Here, Thomas, I want you to be satisfied and have your faith reaffirmed.” Thomas was ashamed for his lack of faith but Christ understood. Christ was a human man. He had a human heart and felt what we felt. Have no doubt, nothing that humans do or say or feel was foreign to Christ.
I also think that Mr. Beuhler was supposed to send you to Speech Class. Maybe you could look him up when you get to the afterlife and ask him. You two could have a laugh or two over that.
As is commonly the phrase in England to describe a thing I like: Brilliant, just brilliant. I especially like your continuing and accurate assessment of the orange grifter. Carry on.
Thankyou, Garrison. You spread joy across the pond to this wet and grey corner of Scotland. The same magic of forgetting while singing applies to reading words on paper ; while I read yours, I forgot about the background hum of unease at the State We're In.
There are no Republicans in heaven. Just kidding someone has to check the price of coffee and crab at the help : )
This Unitarian ended up watching hours of the history of Christianity on PBS Easter! And now I consider myself Jewish! How did that happen?!
Singing, singing, singing—nothing gets one closer to the ineffable, and closer to one’s harmonizing companions. Sing on, all. Sing like a humpback, sing like a nightingale.
GK, you even got my wife, who has been told all her life she can’t sing (not by me)—to sing her heart out at your Escondido solo show. Please come back to SoCal with the band. Please.
And thank you for holding fast to your political views. This is an existential moment in the U.S.: Decency vs. Dictatorship. To remain silent and to profess the false equivalency is to bury one’s ostrich-brained head deep in the Earth.
Rise up, y’all, and sing.
Yes, the joy of the renewal and community...two of the mains teachings of his words. I'm a fan of joy, adulation, spontaneous tears. Funny unrelated story...i was registering for my classes in HS...some person thought registering like college students would help us in the future..turned out to be true. I was in a very long line for a class, 'Speech/Reading' and noticed the line for 'Reading/Speech' had only one person in it so I jumped. When I showed up to the class it was funny because there were only 3 or 4 non-Latino students, the rest were Latino (although in 1973 we were cool so would have said Chicano.) I know most of them from a variety of other spaces (tracking was still legal) and we had a great time...although many asked, "What are you doing here?"
I know there was discrimination, tracking, unfair assumptions but here is was, loud and clear! These were smart people, hardworking people from working families...so why?
One of those moments were I was the 'outsider' by the community standard...new experience. Important. So as we think about renewal. about treatment of others, about joy and family, pride and hard work...the values we all share! Although i guess pride in a sin...oh well...being prideful and feeling pride at one's hard work are not the shame things.
But it's the judgement things, they did kick me out as I could read too fast, and I was sent to the Speech Class, as in debate!!! I found my home. And yes there were a couple of Latinas who had too found themselves here with us.
You can debate WOKE...an important observation that simply 'passing laws' was not enough to change the attitudes and actions of systemic racism in our culture. Renewal, joy, sharing...the solstice. You see Easter is a borrowed holiday, they got the dates wrong. The resurrection should too be the equinox and the arrival of Spring.
I love reading your Columns! Thank you again.
Gee I Like your stories! Going to the playground and I’m gonna get happy. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for Caring.