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Speaker 1: I'm an old man, but not utterly clueless. And as

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I hear music come out of the ceiling, I hear

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rap and hip hop become monosyllabic, a string of shouts

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and macho mumbles with machine like percussion, a sort of

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anti music. And then along comes a young woman who

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sings actual stories in whole sentences to a real melody,

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and you have Taylor Swift, and she takes over the

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music business and becomes the most famous person on earth,

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bigger than Vladimir Putin. When Putin fills the stadium, you

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know it was at gunpoint. Mister Trump fills small plauzas.

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But it's all the same people, mostly retirees with time

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on their hands, who love hearing that same speech over

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and over. Taylor Swift draws huge, paying crowds who are

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overjoyed from start to finish and also by the merch

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and go home happy. I accept the fact that I

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am a back issue, I'm a relic, and that younger

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people have taken over eight years ago, I played the

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Hollywood Bowl. A few weeks ago, I played a two

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hundred seater in Monominy, Wisconsin. It was fun. People in

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the seats talked back to me. We hung out in

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the lobby afterward. I caught influenza from one of them.

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Do Taylor's fans get to share their germs with her?

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I doubt it very much. I accept change, even some

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changes that cause me pain. I grew up reading newspapers,

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and now they're dying by the hundreds. And the reason

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is simple. Most of them tend to be solemn, pretentious, humorless,

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and so people prefer social media. The comments in social

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media can be wild and feisty and sarcastic. I admire

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George F. Will's columns, and I also enjoy the hundreds

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of lefties throwing spitballs at him. You don't find much

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irreverence in newspapers anymore. They're rather sedate, like nursing home.

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I accept agism. Joe Biden is, in fact eighty one,

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so am I. We can put on a glove, but

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we're not likely to turn a double play. Our ballet

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careers are long past. We need help with computers too bad.

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I see young women tapping out texts on their cell

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phones at forty words permitted, using only their thumbs. I

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hunt and peck at five words permitted with my index finger,

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and I make lots of spelling hers. As an old man,

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I repent of visiting my generation's sins on the grand kids.

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I like the idea of the young starting out more

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or less fresh and in the clear. Conservatives make a

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powerful case against my generation providing generous benefits for itself

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and passing on the check to our grand kits. I

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liked to think of America as looking forward to the

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morning and the next new opportunity, not dragging the chains

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of the past. I belonged to a privileged class, now

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almost vanished, of Americans who could pay for their college

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education working part time minimum wage jobs. That was the

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beautiful idea of the land grant university. You didn't have

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to ask dad's help or pay attention to his plans

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for you. When I was eighteen, my father told me

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loud and clear that he wouldn't foot the bill for

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the university, and I took that as the privilege of independence. Now,

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a year at the University of Minnesota costs upward of

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twenty two grand and it's hard to earn that at

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ten dollars an hour and still get your sleep and

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writes your urn paper on Moby Dick it's a tragedy

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to cheat the kids of an education and run them

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through the maize and badger them into grinding out the assignments,

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and they line up in caps and gowns without ever

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finding the light switch. It's your first chance to find

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out what your soul might make of your life. Jefferson

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believed that enlightenment is the foundation of freedom, and that

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learning is happiness, and happiness is at the heart of democracy.

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So let's take a cue from Taylor Swift and turn

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away from dread and dismay and other ill informed opinions

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and put on some glitter and allow exuberance to have

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its way with us. Let's tell stories in whole sentences.

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Let's talk about love. Let the cranks and kill joys

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camp in the saloon and soak in their own sour juices.

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And let's go to the dance. Let's go to the dance.

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Baseball season is coming. Let's give the umps a hard

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time and cheer for the home team and have a

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beer and are brought with mustard. Let's live life and

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not grouse about it. And by the way, I love

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it when you smile. You look good when you smile.

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Brisk Verse Garrison Keiller's new book of poems. Some whimsical,

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some funny, may be mischievous, may be thought provoking. In

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any case, an irresistible read and a great gift brisk Verse.

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Check it out at Garrison Keiller dot com. If you

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enjoy Garrison's writings, you'll find a bonanza in his newsletter,

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Garrison Keiller and Friends. There's humor, advice, thoughts on ordinary life,

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and lots more. Subscribe at Garrison Keiller dot substack dot

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com