bierkergaard

I met my mother and youngest brother at Maggiano's Little Italy at the King of Prussia Mall for dinner last week. Mom was in from Florida and although I live up here in Anabaptist land, I can get to King of Prussia in just over an hour down the Turnpike. About 70 miles and a cultural chasm as wide as the time between the 20th and 21st Century. Lancaster as a whole is somewhere in the 90's. I grew up close to the King of Prussia Mall, less than ten minutes. And besides getting terribly lost there then when I was 7, and a few super lame attempts trying to pick-up girls as a teen, and last minute Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve as a young adult, I am really K.O.P. mall-averse. I hate the super-saturated consumerism and all that it represents. The Great Gatsby as a way of life. I didn't have much money as teen and going to the Mall would have just reminded me of being broke all of the time. Maggiano's is a great place for dinner but watch the dr...

Great news. I bit the bullet and got my book published in hard copy today. Just pulled that tooth once and for all. Swiftly slammed that door with a string. I had to put in the yellow borders on Paint Shop Pro to create a buffer like a DMZ to protect the lettering that was getting consumed on the cover in the formatting software on Lulu. Worked like a charm. Taking that ILT web development and  publishing class in the Temple Doctoral program  has paid many dividends. I know it was probably not the best solution but I did what I could. Not bad after months of wringing my hands. Either wring the hands or put the hands to work. Same energy expended. Worry or work.  By the way, I was at Fort Ticonderoga in New York in New York State (a Revolutionary War Fort) as a kid and saw a musket ball on museum display with teeth marks in it. The aftermath of surgery without anesthetic. No biting bullets for me. Laughing Gas por fa...

So, I was at a happening party Friday night where me and the boys hung out, listened to 45's (most of them Blues and Jazz), had laughs, snacks (bacon pepper jam on cheese-infused crackers) and drank some beers. Paradise. But, there was chill in Paradise. The floor-based air conditioner blowing cold air on me all night from 7:00 PM to midnight. I had not the sense to sit elsewhere. It was the third floor of my buddy's house so the AC was needed. I just didn't need to be necking it all night. I am extremely sensitive to the cold. It is why I usually wear a hat year round. I can't stand too cold AC. It is the curse of the age to freeze when it is a hundred degree outside. Correcting one problem by going too far the other way. Idiocy. Wasteful. American profligacy. Come Saturday, I felt a cold coming on. As typical, I gargled with some whiskey and it seemed like the cold virus was on the defensive. I had coffee with a good friend. Sunday morni...

I reread a quote today from C.S. Lewis "Imagination is the organ of meaning."  Imagination would seem to be a nice thing to have in life but not a necessity. We need food, we need water, we need shelter. And I might just need coffee. But, above all else, we need meaning. For if life is meaning-less, why bother eating, drinking, staying dry and warm? And imagination, is the key to meaning. Facts by themselves don't coalesce into coherence. Instead, facts point to a bigger and more expansive reality. Like keys on a piano becoming a song. The Alphabet becoming Shakespeare. One star in the sky is not that impressive. Thousands of stars are. The Organic Universe. Let there be Light. One sentence brought forth Creation   If we take away a person's ability to envision a better and more beautiful life, while they are in hard times, they may not make it out of the hardship, or want to. I have learned that there are many times that a person's world i...

John 4:34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." Last night I was hanging out with a buddy drinking a couple of beers at an upscale brewpub in Lancaster. A pricey place and not the scene for beers after lawn work, at least before showering. My buddy had to roll so I was awaiting another buddy who was coming. We were going to catch some of the Heat-Pacers game, which turned out to be a dud, and also catch up. LeBron rules. In the interim between buddies, like two halves of a basketball game, an attractive girl/woman sat in the chair my first buddy had just vacated. She had long blond tresses, a chic white short dress on, and was made up like a doll. Almost model-like. I was fooling around with my Untappd app on my iPhone trying to figure out how to check-in so I was distracted. But one thing kept reminding me that she was there in the chair next to me. She had a lot of perfume on--and a perfume that I didn't...

    Ecclesiastes 5:18   Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.     Dear Class of 2013:   Commencement Addresses are not long remembered. Unless really bad or really good. Or, if I were to so something dramatic or irresponsible. Like shooting off Roman Candles from the podium. Or show up in my boxers. Or belch. However, one key to giving a good speech is to remember your audience. Thus, I will try to remember what it felt like to sit where you are now seated, but also to provide a quarter of century of advice that I have learned since college graduation. Another tip: Be brief!   Back in college, my roommate Bill and I watched David Letterman nightly. This is when he was on NBC at 12:30 in the morning, following the Tonight Show with Johnny...

Job 40 6 Then the L ORD answered Job out of the storm and said, 7 “Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct Me. 8 “Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified? 9 “Or do you have an arm like God, And can you thunder with a voice like His? 10 “Adorn yourself with eminence and dignity, And clothe yourself with honor and majesty. 11 “Pour out the overflowings of your anger, And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low. 12 “Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him, And tread down the wicked where they stand. 13 “Hide them in the dust together; Bind them in the hidden place. 14 “Then I will also confess to you, That your own right hand can save you. I listened to a sermon that was titled "The Ritual of Recovery" and it was a reflection on the tornado in  Oklahoma. The pastor had much good and wise things to say. Basically, face your pain squarely.   Yet, one assertion of h...