bierkergaard

Over 25 years ago, in Grad School, my Counselor Education professor--a very bright woman--made a comment that only two things change people: Religious Conversion and Loss. At the time it made an impression on me. So much, that I can recall it now. I am not sure if that is absolutely true. In my life it has been to some degree. But, love has also changed me...God's and People, and even my departed cat Barnabas. It is weird when people make too much of their pets, but is also too dismissive to underestimate the power of companionship and care that a pet can bring into a life, particularly when someone has been neglected, an outcast, etc. It has been a rainy and cold month of December and early January here in Pa. Not cold enough for snow but miserable. All rain and no rainbows recently. Some very difficult things have happened this weekend--a long outworking of one of the issues outlined below in broad terms. It is now over thank God and I need to let it be over and face for...

A friend of mine posted a lovely meditation on December and darkness,  On Advent and the like. I commented appreciatively that "For darkness is the realm of dreams." Every so often I feel as if I hit a note right, like a string on a guitar. It just vibrates in a shimmering expansive way. When I was in the midst of Ph.D. studies and working full-time, I unwisely consumed a lot of coffee after work so I could stick to my six-day work-out schedule and be alert in the evening for my wife. Long story short, I just didn't burn the candle and both ends, I microwaved the f@cker into a molten pool. I was stressed and exhausted all of the time and then used beer to try and douse the psychological flames on the weekends. Really unwise. I was never in danger of being an alcoholic or anything, it was just the caffeine and alcohol duo was just the wrong remedy. Sleep was not restful, I skimmed on the top of sleep like a smooth stone on the surface of a stream. I was clocking t...

Lancaster City is being plagued by an outbreak of shootings and suicides. A good deal of the violence is by young men. A school teacher was murdered last week in her city house in a cold blooded break-in robbery by two young assailants who didn't know her but one lived in her neighborhood. The community is shocked and saddened. A lot of hang-wringing is going on where people are looking for answers. I have worked with teenagers for close to thirty years and as a result of such in-depth experiences over such a long period of time, often with society's most distressed and troubled kids, I know a thing or two more than the average person about adolescents. I was in a bit of a discussion with a friend, more Liberal than I, on Facebook about remedies to this and I felt as if he somewhat discounted my insight. I don't offer easy solutions but ones that I think are grounded in reality and not idealism. My general point was that fear can be a deterrent to crime. Not the best d...

I drove out the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving. There, I dwelt and celebrated with Brother Steve and his wife and kids. I have been making the trek for over 20 years. It wouldn't seem like Thanksgiving without going out there. A tradition in the best sense of the word. I also get to hang out with my niece Averie who is a 7 year old ball of fire in 60 pounds of human flesh. She is a great spirit and a lot of fun to goof around with. Since I will probably never have kids, it is the closest slice of fatherhood that I will ever have--and a heck of a lot easier. More like unclehood. I am not exactly the most devoted uncle but I do think that my brothers' kids (I have three brothers) are supercool and a blessing to me. At the end of the days, I want to be named the Patron Saint of Teenagers. Those are the children I have spent most of my life with praise God. What a remarkable blessing. After one gets beyond Carlisle, the Pennsylvania Turnpike becomes a ...

Proverbs 1:20 Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. Ferguson, New York City, Cleveland. Unarmed black males killed by white police officers. Die-ins at Malls, protests in the streets. Baltimore, New York City. Police Officers shot or killed. Nary a sound. All is quiet. Nary a peep. Hypocrisy? For certain. The black males killed to one degree or another engaged the police inappropriately, even with illegal behavior. The police didn't randomly select these individuals without cause. There was probable cause for their confrontations. We can certainly condemn the heavy-handedness of the police, but easy for me to say. The cops didn't know if the suspects were armed. Just because some thug winds up not having a gun doesn't mean that the police officer knew this beforehand. And I certainly wouldn't take the word of a suspect. Good way to become a casualty. The police officers killed? Doing their jobs. The two cops killed in NYC were mi...

There are those who hate winter. There are those who tolerate it. And then there are those of us who love it. I love it. Must be my Nordic blood. I have to cycle through the seasons like different courses of a meal. Just when summer provokes my maddening summer itching--an odd ailment that happens to my skin as the summer wears on--the temps start to cool and my body comes back into balance. Winter has its dangers too for me with my vulnerability of catching colds like a frog catches flies. Fall and Spring are respites to the dual bodily dangers. I think living in California or Florida would parch my soul. Winter brings a needed desolation. Truly, the best thing about winter is getting warm, something that is taken for granted during the heat of summer. Winter would hardly be appealing if I was cold 24-7. It is only the coat, the blanket, the heater, gloves, and hat, that kindle winter affection. When I attended Millersville University, I lived on the 9th floor of a Dorm Hi-Rise...

About ten years ago, my nuclear and extended family eliminated gift-giving. First it was ending of the giving of gifts back-and-forth between each individual member and then there was the "select one person" and then that was axed. We killed it outright. I was thankful. We are geographically all over the place. So buying of the gifts had the mailing component on top of the selection stress. The kids were exempted. Under 18 years of age still get a Amazon Gift Card from me. I know, hardly the result of frantic and frenzied aisle roaming. It is the cash that counts. Back in the days of full gift-giving for all, I would buy the family books. I had a talent for discerning good books from what the Fam feedback told me. Although, I breathed a deep sigh of relief when the gift-giving concluded. I know what I want and need and hardly need someone else to buy it for me. If I want it, I purchase it. Otherwise, no need to procure it for me. This seems to be outright Un-America...