Now that Garrison Keillor is no longer hosting the weekly “A Prairie Home Companion” on American Public Media, he is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post of his essays or sermons that combine humor with a serious subtext.
The serious message in his latest essay is hospitality or loving your neighbor. He says at the end, “We survive by virtue of people extending themselves, welcoming the young, showing sympathy for the suffering, taking pleasure in each other’s good fortune. We are here for a brief time. We would like our stay to mean something. Do the right thing. Travel light. Be sweet.”[1] (Emphasis added.)
Along the way, he laments “the high-pitched oratory on behalf of the embittered rich and people with ingrown toenails and what not. Apparently we are on the verge of losing our Second Amendment rights and will need to defend ourselves with tent stakes and bug spray.”
His Uncle Gene told him, ““There are things more important than being right.” Thus, Gene as a “born-again” had no problems with obtaining his opium-based medicine for hemorrhoids from a Roman Catholic druggist.
Garrison also celebrates “the common decency, the common crucial values which are about marriage, parenthood, friendship, work, faith and attitude” of small towns, in Minnesota, of course. A Syrian refuge in such a town should go to church suppers and buy a raffle ticket and “sit down with a plate of beans and baked chicken, potato salad, a roll, a slab of pie, and learn the art of small talk.”
Keillor’s message was anticipated by Jesus when He said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 36-40) (Emphasis added.)
Thank you, Garrison. Keep it up. “Make the most of your brief time on Earth!”
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[1] Keillor, Make the most of your brief time on Earth, Wash. Post (Aug. 17, 2016).