Garrison Keillor, Episcopalian

Before he decided to throw in the towel and become what his fans wanted him to be, Garrison Keillor really wanted to see himself and his society from the outside.

He spent a lot of time in New York and Denmark. In that he became who he thought he wanted to be.In our collective lives of quiet desperation, most of us don't get that chance. We don't have the money, talent or perceived time to do so.

But Keillor did. The ostensible lesson is that who we are IS who we want to be.

But he wrote some notes before he drew that conclusion. My favorite passage in "We Are Still Married" is called "Episcopal," where he makes up new words to an old Fats Waller tune to describe the attractions of being Episcopalian:

I'm slow to anger
Don't covet or lust.
No sins of pride except sometims I really must.
Episcopalian, saving my love for you.
The theology's easy, the liturgy too.
Just stand up and kneel down and say what the others do.
Episcopalian, saving my love for you.

With this, Keillor sums up the current (and probably end) state of his career.

Oh, hear that old piano, from down the avenue...I smell the dry rot, I look around for you...

There must be some guilty pleasures associated with staying Catholic.