Tuned In

If you don't listen to NPR public radio, give it a try. Especially if you are in the Philly area and can tune into the programming on Saturday and Sunday at 90.9-FM. There are some remarkable shows, such as This American Life, Fresh Air, Prairie Home Companion, and You Bet your Garden. I owe my NPR junkie style to my folks who listened incessantly and donated every year. I always loved those mugs with the station logo... but I diverge. Anyhow we used to sit around the radio as a family in NC on Saturday nights from 6 to 8 and listen to Garrison kiellor's Prairie Home Companion show. (Now as a child in the 80's I did have a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't exactly the coolest thing to be doing on a Saturday night but the show was so damn good that it even over-rode my pubescent worries.)I also secretly took great comfort in sharing this radio experience with my parents and siblings. It made me feel old fashioned, safe, and secure. It was one of my earliest experiences of feeling that sensation of "Wow, somebody out there really gets me." I felt like I knew those people in that Minnesota town, that I got them and they got me. And I felt like this was my own private experience and it was a relief in my adolescent world to know that somebody out there in radio land understood me and was speaking directly to me. What I didn't get at the time was the power of good writing when it speaks to universal truths about the human condition. As a teen and adult waking up to great literature, I started to realize the profound effect of a good book. NPR coverage is not wham bam thank you mam style, it is well crafted, extensive and thoughtful-like a great book or article. And I still felt drawn to the sound of a voice on the radio to take me to places emotionally that go even beyond the visual, and make me empathetically tune in to the stories of our lives.