Cheerfulness: it’s a great American virtue, the essence of who we are when we’re cooking with gas: enthusiasm, high spirits, rise and shine, qwitcher bellyaching, wake up and die right, pick up your feet, step up to the plate and swing for the fences. Smile, dammit. Dance like you mean it and give it some pizzazz, clap on the backbeat. Do your best and forget the rest, da doo ron ron ron da doo ron ron. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, hang by your thumbs and write when you get work, whoopitiyiyo git along little cowboys—and I am an American, I don’t eat my cheeseburger in a croissant, don’t look for a church that serves a French wine and a sourdough wafer for Communion, don’t use words like dodgy, bonkers, knackered, or chuffed. When my team scores, I don’t shout, Très bien!! I don’t indulge in dread and dismay. Yes, I can make a list of evils and perils and injustices in the world, but I believe in a positive attitude and I know that one can do only so much and one should do that much and do it cheerfully. Dread is communicable: healthy rats fed fecal matter from depressed humans demonstrated depressive behavior, including anhedonia and anxiety—crap is bad for the brain. Nothing good comes from this. Despair is surrender. Put your shoulder to the wheel. And wash your hands.
AND, so begins Garrison’s newest book! We cannot wait to share this cheerful tome.
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Behind his self-described “gloomy” visage, Garrison Keillor is a cheerful man. And he’s sharing his thoughts on the benefits of a buoyant demeanor in his new book, Cheerfulness.
“Cheerfulness is a choice,” he tells us. “Adopting cheerfulness as a strategy does not mean closing your eyes to evil; it means resisting our drift toward compulsive dread and despond.”
The theme weaves its way through Keillor’s thoughts on friends, family, work, marriage (“Marriage is the true test of cheerfulness — to make a good life with your best informed critic.”). Cheerfulness shows up in small acts of kindness and heroic acts in the face of adversity. “It’s not the be-all and over-all, the ultimate or consummate and uttermost. It’s a useful tactic to get your head on straight
and go where you need to go and not wind up in the swamp.”
Funny, poignant, thought-provoking, whimsical -Cheerfulness is sure to charm longtime Keillor fans and those just getting to know the writing of this much-admired author.
A native of Anoka, Minnesota, a descendent of Scots, Anglos, Welsh, married to a Nilsson, a resident of New York City, Garrison Keillor was a host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion for many years and authored numerous books, including novels, a book of sonnets, a collection of limericks, a memoir, and a political homily. He writes a biweekly online column on Substack and tours the
country doing cheerful shows.
Cheerfulness by Garrison Keillor is available to order now. Shipping will begin soon. Autographed copies will be a few weeks behind as Garrison will be signing at the end of May.
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