(GK: Garrison Keillor, TR: Tim Russell, SS: Sue Scott, TK: Tom Keith)
....after this message from Chicago Seeds & Nursery.
(NEW AGE PIANO)
GK: It was warm and sunny this week, which is a big deal here on the frozen tundra, it gives us hope, and it made me remember when there used to be hippies in communes, living in teepees and working the land using only sharp sticks, and by late June, most of them started to question the idea, but in April, they were full of hope. She was. Her name was Moonflower.
SS: Actually it's Lilac. We believe that every day a person should have a new name as a sign of accepting life's possibilities. Yesterday I was Moonflower. Today I'm Lilac.
GK: That's a pretty name.
SS: Norma gave me that name. But only for today.
GK: Norma is a friend?
SS: You know her as God but to me, she's Norma.
GK: Cool.
SS: Today she is. ----You know something? I'm going to take off all my clothes. (MUSIC)
GK: Taking off their clothes was something else hippies did and that was also a big deal here on the frozen tundra.
SS: Norma has taught me never to be ashamed of the naked body --- because it is beautiful and sacred and it's her temple.
GK: I was ashamed and terrified of the naked body, mine or anybody else's. My people believed that God's temple should be kept locked at all times and we didn't even like people to come into the neighborhood. No visitors, ever. You couldn't even visit your own temple. But Lilac believed that beauty was meant to be shared. And soon she was sharing it with me and also the rural mail carrier, Vern.
TR (OFF): Morning. (FOOTSTEPS APPROACH) I was looking for you up around the yurt but I didn't see anybody there. --- (TO G.K.) Hi, how you doing? --- I got the note you left in the box, with your list of names----Now, you want me to still deliver the mail that's addressed to the people you were yesterday or what do you want me to do about that? Either way is fine, I'll just do it however you want it, you just tell me. (MUSIC)
GK: Hippies believed in spontaneous truth and for those of us on the frozen tundra who get up in the morning and just do our route, the idea of spontaneity was different.
SS: We live in every moment of life and each moment has its own truth. Do you know what I mean?
GK: I'm trying to.
SS: That's why I eat seeds every day. Each tiny tomato seed contains everything that is known about the rebirth of the tomato. Do you eat seeds?
GK: Sometimes. On buns, I do. When I get a quarter-pounder. It has poppyseeds.
SS: Seeds are the gifts of the Universal that defend our souls against narrowness. Every seed is a letter from Norma.
GK: Lilac was beautiful and then in June she put down her sharp stick and went away and I never heard from her again. But I think of her in the spring and then I go to my Chicago Seed & Nursery.
TR (SAME MAN): So, what can we do for you today then?
GK: I donno. Sort of looking for a little bit of the Universal ---- you know, something to keep my soul from narrowness.
TR: A letter from Norma, you mean? Sure. Got your nice bell pepper. Got your radishes. Tomato seedlings. Green onions. Got your parsnips. Got flowers too. Got your narcissus, got your nasturtium, your viburnum, got your clematis, got your hydrangea, got your forsythia, got your lilac. Got your---
GK: Lilac. You got lilac?
TR: Got your lilac---
GK: Let me have some lilac.
TR: You want one or two.
GK: Don't need two because each one contains the whole.
TR: You want one lilac, then?
GK: One lilac. ---- (PIANO) A message from Chicago Seed & Nursery-----
TR: Chicago, flower grower for the world,
Tulip maker, stacker of wheat,
City of the big begonias. (4 BASIE CHORDS FOR BUTTON)
(c) 2001 by Garrison Keillor