The News from April 18, 1981

Garrison Keillor's Podcast

Prairie Home Productions

Society & Culture, Fiction, Comedy Fiction, Improv, Comedy

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

04.18.81Holy Week in Lake Wobegon was especially quiet as people pondered their shortcomings. Most everyone in Lake Wobegon believes in the existence of sin. In Lake Wobegon, many things are called Sin. And in the larger cities, the same things are called Problems. Tomorrow is Easter as well as first Communion for some young ones. These children have been asking many questions about heaven — many questions we all have. Both Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and First Lutheran churches will be packed. The services almost bring you to a place of immortality. But just like that, it's over and you are back outside. It is so interesting how the mystical feeling of it all dissipates and we go back in our daily lives.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobagon.
0:03.0	Holy Week, this has been the end of Lent.
0:06.4	People are especially quiet there.
0:09.3	Time when people in Lake Wobagon are contemplating their shortcomings and their failures.
0:16.8	Over the year, Lent isn't long enough for some of us to get very far in that.
0:23.6	Thank goodness.
0:26.6	Lake Wobagon is a town with a great many shortcomings.
0:30.6	A great many.
0:32.6	But one of its strengths, I think, is the fact that most everybody in Lake Wobagon does believe in the existence
0:39.4	of sin.
0:41.7	I don't believe that everything that goes wrong is the result of a failure in communications
0:48.4	or a misunderstanding or a lack of B-1 vitamins or something else.
0:57.5	I've noticed that moving down to the cities, that a lot of what was simply called sinful
1:04.3	and Lake Wobagon is down here referred to as problems, problem behavior.
1:13.2	And I don't think there's anything wrong with that,
1:16.4	but I do believe that people sometimes can spend a great deal of time
1:20.9	trying to understand problems and resolve them and talk about them,
1:31.3	only to come up with new and different problems, whereas in Lake Wobagon, they save a lot of time
1:34.3	by simply calling it sin and forgiving it and to hell with it.
1:42.3	And that's what we do this week.
1:47.0	Tomorrow is Easter in Lake Wobagon and the celebration of the resurrection.
1:53.0	At Lake Wobagon Lutheran, it is also First Communion Sunday for 11 children who have been
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