As the daylight window here gets ridiculously short, and I attempt to hold onto my almost-winter sanity, I am noticing one fringe benefit. The bleakness drives me past my usual hesitation to cold-email old friends ("THIS will cheer me up!"). That isn't the main benefit, though. The benefit is the fre-e-e-z-z-ing weather that I can bravely dismiss as I strike up new conversations with old friends ("it's not SO bad once you get the gear."). I used to think that Garrison Keillor was being folksy and (as the NY Times has stated on multiple occasions) perhaps a bit condescending. I mean it doesn't REALLY get to 20 below...right?
No, he's not a storyteller as much as he is just reporting what he sees. Every other person really is Lutheran and Scandinavian. Hell, sport and I walk by the Kringen Lodge every time we go downtown.
Yeah, not having to rely on glossy fictions for conversational detail and having conversational inhibitions beaten out of you by the weather helps the old writing process. Just ask Mr. Keillor.
2 comments:
Why don't you stop in the Kringen Lodge?
Sven Torvald, is that you?
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