Garrison Keillor is a national treasure, not because he is a famous celebrity, but because he is a truly honest, perceptive, and kind person. He is also articulate, (and may actualy have avoided mispronunciating,((Bushism)), "nukular" during the entire course of his long career)!

While enriching our lives with wit and charm, he has most importantly re-introduced us to the pleasures of the arts,literature,and varied styles of music, and made us laugh at ourselves in the process.

I can't think of a greater gift to our shared cultures.

(Although maybe he could get the Foo Fighters on the show, or even John Hiatt,,,Neil Young?,,,Dylan would be cool!).

The amazing thing is that he does not need celebs, or the flavor of the week, to captivate and retain his audience. He just presents himself as he is, and that has always been enough.

This ,yesterday, being the 20th anniversary of my pretty damn happy 2nd or so marraige, I find this most apropos, and as usual, Garrison has wisdom to dispense.

I particularly like "Very Rich People Helping Wretched People Without Having to Be in the Same Room With Them", and I can't imagine what being a public personality would be like, but Garrison gives a good hint.

My wisdom is, find a very wise and very foolish creature kind enough to give you love and support always, or almost. I did, by pure chance, and I thank god every day. She goes out of the house, all on her own, which I also like. Somebody has to do the vacuuming and dusting.

Keillor complains about being elbowed in his airplane seat by "...a piggish fellow in an expensive sweater and tasseled shoes, snarfing his lunch while poring over the Wall Street Journal..." then says "I come from a part of America where people apologize if they poke and make sure not to do it again. He comes from a part of America where you push your way up to the trough and elbow other people out of the way." While tassled loafers and the Wall Street Journal are available everywhere, they do seem to be signifiers for East Coast executive. Still, giving Keillor the benefit of the doubt and supposing by "part of America" he wasn't speaking strictly geographically, it is my experience that boorish people come from all parts of the country and from all walks of life, just as polite and considerate people are not confined to some idyllic middle part of America, or to wearing shoes other than tassled loafers.

More from the corn fields. Our midwestern lives don't allow for trips to make speeches at benefits nor do most folks outside our little town care all that much about what we think on most issues. When we begin to get on the last nerve of our spouse we must take less exotic measures to create some space between ourselves. My brother, upon discovering the home fires were beginning to scorch his sense of well being would take a trip to the dump where he and buddy or two would sit in the rain, in the dark and take pot shots at the rats. They were cold and miserable and mostly terrible shots.

In a while the issues at home became less of an irritation than the smell of the dump and they would wander on home happy that at least the home fires were warm and did not have the aroma of garbage.

The lesson of misery as a cure for the everyday blahs of our lives is one learned early here in the middle of the corn fields and I'm always pleased when some fool in tasseled loafers figures it out before he runs off and gets a divorce because life isn't a party all the time.

" I'm always pleased when some fool in tasseled loafers figures it out before he runs off and gets a divorce because life isn't a party all the time."

Did you miss the part where the tassel-less author himself has been married three times?

Thank you, Mr. Keillor, for that piece of wisdom.

My husband and I were both painfully divorced from our first spouses before marrying each other. When we wed, one thing we both agreed on was that this marriage was for keeps - divorce was off the table as an option, because we both knew how awful it could be.

Over 15 years, we had our ups and downs like most couples. There were occasional times that I found myself yearning to run away to Tahiti or Martinique or even Philadelphia, just to get away from the mundanities and small annoyances of our life, but of course I didn't do it. Then my work would send me on the road, sometimes for a week at a time, sometimes for many weeks with only short weekends home in between, and I would always find that I was eager to go back to the warmth of his arms, even if they did come with his stubborn streak and his dirty socks on the floor.

Last fall my husband died suddenly after an accident. I now know, absolutely and for certain, just how stupid it would have been for me to have ever acted on those childish fantasies about leaving. Because now I'm living that life, and I'd give anything for a little mundanity again.

Thank you, Mr. Keillor, for making an oasis in what is all-too-often an us-versus-them world. Being annoyed is part of living; it's nice to read something that isn't cultivating malice for a change.

As for being another in a long line of people singing your praises and how you'd really rather just hear a joke, let me recommend a really humorous essay:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/04/12/keillor/index.html

I chortle to myself. I'd loll around all day and do nothing but read all Garrison Keillor's columns and tell myself that a. I've accomplished much, and b. that I'm happy.

So much brilliance in less than 2000 words.

Rule #1 - Give your mate everything she/he wants with no strings

attached.

Rule #2 - Never ever, ever, ever, ever criticize your mate or tell

her/him that they are wrong or have ever been wrong.

I love GK as a writer but giving advice on being happily married may be a bit beyond his range of expertise being now in his third marriage. As a marriage counselor for more than 30 years, I can attest to the fact that some marriages need to be terminated for the health of both parties. However, most marriages would never make it to the counselor's office if the two parties practiced the two rules listed above. And, by the way, I have been happily married to the same woman for 40 years, first and last.