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Shayjay's avatar

This made me smile. This made me tear up. This made me reflect. My oldest granddaughter graduates from performing arts high school next year. I watched her, with her cell phone in one hand and a frozen pizza in the other, melt down the other day because “the pizza wouldn’t fit” in the freezer. She and her boyfriend, a freshman in college for the same skill, are also so in love. They have done a photo shoot for a local business and look fabulous together. They are definitely pretty people. Bless all of our grandchildren.

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Aubrey W Kendrick's avatar

Sweet experience and sweet comments.

It is nice to just sit quietly and think. That is a good thing to do at graduations, doctors' appointments, and church. Preachers have a captive audience for a few minutes and have a chance to say something interesting about the gospels, but most do not rise to the occasion.

Going to college was one of the very best things that happened to me. Not just taking courses and learning things but the experience of being away from home and on my own, meeting new people and navigating a new situation. At some point everyone has to take ownership of their life and made decisions for themselves. The sooner one starts doing it the better.

Thank you Garrision for those nice comments.

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Donna T. Deal's avatar

Thank you.

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Rose's avatar

"More important than a college degree is the love of a good woman." Amen to that. Or love of a good man, if that suits. Love really does trump whatever cards you may have or been dealt. With love you can withstand almost anything. And sometimes it is even put to the test.

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cheryl's avatar

Such a happy story to start my day! Best wishes to these young people, who have much work to do.

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Linda's avatar

All the above and YES!! Thank you for a wonderful start to my day.

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Jim Jankiewicz's avatar

Other than the not-neededful, obligatory TDS outburst, a nice personal sharing GK.

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Garrison Keillor's avatar

What did I say about Tragic Democratic Slip-ups? BTW, "not-neededful" suggests you might need to repeat sixth grade.

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John's avatar

The Voyage of the Snark. 😆

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Jim Jankiewicz's avatar

GK. Sorry (kinda) for the whimsical description of your TDS malady. I just get tired of how you slip in your hate of the man in otherwise pleasant writings. On the other hand, I enjoyed you and Jim "Ed' Poole and how you would mix in the Beach Boys and Bethoven back in your radio days. Good memories.

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Garrison Keillor's avatar

Go back to Laura Loomer, sir, and figure out how to annex Canada and justify your guy's cryptoscam and the Qatar 747 and the Cabinet of billionaires. The manure is going to hit the fan and you'll need to justify it all. You and I are not citizens of the same country.

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PamTyree's avatar

Cheerfulness is what we really need and you cheer us on Garrison 🤗

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Terrance Lindenbergg's avatar

Well done. There is a monotonous tone to all these graduations. Yet as you looked upon your family there is the special quality for each in attendance. Fine words covering where we are as a society that these young people enter.

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Patricia Lambert's avatar

How I wish you'd print your lyrics you used to sing to "Pomp and Circumstance" on PHC during graduation time. I remember only a bit... something like: "I wave to my mother/ I laugh with my friends..." Along with the Lake Wobegon Hymn, my favorite. Thanks. Well, thanks for everything. I sometimes forward the Column to friends and receive back: Love Garrison Keillor, always used to listen to him on Saturday nights.

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Pamela Delk's avatar

A’ho!

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Mary jane Mcgeady's avatar

Thankyou. I was watching the morning news and fearing for the world. Now i feel happy, teary and hopeful. Thankyou

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Lynda Bennett Valladares's avatar

Darling ❤️

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Majik's avatar

Happy for you, your family, and,especially, the young lovers! Thank you for sharing this with us.

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David Kramer's avatar

-This week's column took me back to my own college graduation, trying to remember what 1975 outfit I had thankfully overlaid with my commencement gown, my folks being thankful that I graduated early, after winter quarter vs. the more popular spring quarter, and thus fewer names to read and trips by graduates across the stage.

Your contemplation of those who are no longer with us could have come right out of Edward Gorey's Amphigory, and made me laugh out loud. "Poor cousin Lynn, plagued by bad luck, entered the highway, crushed by a truck.".

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Carl Voss's avatar

Except they were all real people, so it's not really that amusing.

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Carl Voss's avatar

PS The Gorey you're thinking of is "The Gashlycrumb Tinies." "Amphigorey" is an anthology.

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Elizabeth Block's avatar

I expect that your college degree emboldened you to go down the path you went down. I'm a Radcliffe graduate and a potter. If I didn't have that degree, would I have had the nerve to make my (meager) living as a potter? I doubt it.

BTW I love your comment that the intelligence of university presidents (at least as displayed in commencement speeches) is artificial.

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