bierkergaard

    Yes, the above is my very own Big-E's Pan Pizza. Straight from bare-knucked brawling Columbia, Pa. And, I am not even Italian. Though my mom's maiden name is Brenneman which means my people crossed the Brenner Pass through the Alps from Italy to Austria back in the day. Knowing me, probably in search of better beer. Can't imagine it was for the food. Maybe I have some Northern Italian Luigi in me some where.        I was eating some DIGIORNO'S pizza the other week and I happened to gaze upon the ingredient list. It read like the Periodic Table. Franken-Pizza! From the Lab to you! I wondered why a foodstuff so simple (wheat, tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings) could be so complex. I was disgusted and spewed the cryogenic crap out of my mouth and vowed that I would never buy such manipulated and treated pizza every again. I think most of the chemicals were preservatives to keep the pizza in state for years until popped into the oven.   It amuses me when

The other night I came home to find my recycling bin gone. I pondered the probability that someone had stolen it. My better angel thought...."It had been windy, I had placed it on the curb for pick-up in the morning, it is probably somewhere around the 'hood." I am getting better at being less paranoid. However, I do live in Columbia, in the land of not plenty, where it is conceivable that someone would covet my sweet recycling bin. It is like super-sized. Yet even here, I thought it not likely to be pilfered. Except by a thief with low self-esteem. Stealer of garbage cans and ilk. I was tired, it was late. I had just been at work for over 14 hours. No mood for an Easter Egg Hunt. Small problems at the wrong time can have an exponential effect considering the context. I proceeded to walk around. I came across a stray bin strewn in the street. "Come home Lassie" I thought. Alas, it has a number on it of 144 which is my neighbor across the street. I was b

It is still OK to: Eat a bowl of ice cream and not feel guilty, to sleep in on Saturdays, to not have all the answers, to assume the best of others as a first response, to wear blue jeans to church, to give up on washing and waxing the car, to not being a workaholic, to give all kids a fighting chance, to worry more about doing something good than doing something wrong, to pet strangers dogs, to walk rather than run, to laugh at myself but take others more seriously, to not write long emails or blogs or short tweets, to be rather than to do. To watch snow fall, support public television and radio, to be less political. Read books and sing songs even though I can't sing. To listen rather than lecture. To try and remember how hard it was to grow up and to give teenagers grace. Maybe more to come as I think of it....

Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. A buddy and were talking about a myriad of topics and we got in a discussion of how our money votes. Our political system, a participatory democracy, gives us the right to vote for a candidate. Yet, our dollars daily dictate in a very real way what we vote for. I am making it a point these days to eat at independently owner ethnic restaurants. The food is colorful, alive, complex, and beautiful. Not some chicken pulverized and then reconstituted by additives. Waffle House and its ilk are Awful House as far as I am concerned. As an example, he mentioned that his teen sisters wanted to get some pants from him for Christmas from Victoria's Secret and he declined because of the nature of Victoria's Secret yearly 5 billion dollars in sales empire, online business, and 1,000 stores. It is based on the premise that physical beauty equals worth.

When the Beatles sang, "Love is all you need" they were more right than they could have ever imagined. Outside of air, water, food, shelter, clothing, and coffee, love is the ultimate need of all things created. I saw a tweet yesterday by Tim Keller that Phil Ryken has written the book above. Dr. Ryken is an extraordinarily intelligent communicator of God's truth and the travails modern age, much of which is a the result of a distorted view of love. I surely could use some pointers on learning to love like Jesus. So, I bought the tome. I try to watch using words like "I love" beer or something else I enjoy. It cheapens love. My buddy and I were chatting last night in his fourth floor den--I love the idea that a room four stories high is a den--about love, particularly male/female. Without getting into the details of the conversation, I sensed God told me that to love like Jesus is to love without expectancy. As opposed to: If I love, then a certain set of