Keillor on Midwesterners

I'm from Texas, born and reared as they say, but my forbears are Midwesterners, from Wisconson and Iowa, by way of Norway and the British Isles.

It was interesting, then, to read today what Garrison Keillor had to say about Midwesterners, and why they are the way they are.

"We come from people who brought us up to believe that life is a struggle," he recently told an interviewer. "And if you should ever feel really happy, be patient. This will pass."

This is probably an overstatement. There are fatalists from all parts of the world. They come in all shapes and sizes and have all manner of accents. But Keillor's right, too, so far as it goes, at least among my clan.
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