Be Well, Do Good Work, and Keep in Touch
For years, my mornings, when I wasn't working, would be driving HWY 26 to the coast, morning edition on OPB would be over and you would hear some music and then that familiar, gravelly baritone voice:
"And here is The Writer's Almanac for..."
For five minutes every day, Garrison Keillor would transport me. It wasn't just about the poetry though the poems were often exactly what I needed to hear without knowing it. It was the history. The literary birthdays. The reminder that on this day, in 1862, Emily Dickinson wrote a letter, or in 1920, a great novel was published.
It was a small, daily anchor that made me feel peaceful. When I would hear The Writer's Almanac come on the radio I would be transported to what I imagined as the effete world of the writer with a coffee on a desk, a typewriter and a window overlooking a lake.
It often gave the gumption to go out and do good work.
The Power of Routine and Voice
There is something profoundly grounding about a daily oral tradition. Before we had endless scrolling feeds and push notifications, we had voices we trusted. We had appointment viewing (or listening).
"The Writer's Almanac" did two things that I think we are missing today:
- It honored the past. It didn't just tell us the news of today; it reminded us of the news of yesterday. It contextualized our current moment within the long arc of history.
- It slowed us down. You couldn't skim the radio. You had to listen. You had to let the poem unfold at its own pace.
"Be Well, Do Good Work..."
Keillor always ended the segment with the same sign-off: "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
That phrase has stuck with me for decades. It is a simple, three-part instruction for a meaningful life.
- Be well: Take care of yourself.
- Do good work: Contribute something of value to the world.
- Keep in touch: Maintain your connections. Don't let your relationships fade.
That last part keep in touch is the hardest one. It is easy to be well and do work. It is much harder to reach out, to write the letter, to make the phone call, to preserve the connection.
Building Our Own Almanac
I miss that daily five-minute ritual. But it also serves as a reminder of why I built VerbaPost.
We are trying to capture that same feeling of history and voice. When we interview a parent or grandparent for the Heirloom Archive, we are essentially creating a private "Writer's Almanac" for that family. We are recording their history, their "literary birthdays," and their voice.
We want to make sure that fifty years from now, someone can pick up a letter or listen to a recording and feel that same sense of grounding that I felt listening to the radio over my morning coffee.
So, in the spirit of those mornings: Be well, do good work, and please keep in touch.