bierkergaard

IF all goes according to plan, THEN I will be in Taos, New Mexico in 24 hours. Sleeping in a bed at an artsy Bed and Breakfast. I am a big Travelocity user. Put in the dates, check flights, select flight, check lodging, get lodging, check cars, get a car. Pull out credit card and pay for it all. Easy to plan. Oh those easy IFs, they haunt us. After I get back from Taos, I have 2.5 days back here in Molumbia, then I head to Philly to fly to the Philippines for my best friend's wedding. We started out playing ping-pong together at Millersville University over three decades ago. Since then we have been whopped around by the paddles of Providence, us ping-pong balls. I suppose my road has been harder, but who really can tell that in the end. Providence is a term used in Christian theology that speaks of God' s ultimate control over everything for His purposes. It differs from God's ethical will as expressed in the Ten Commandments which is known. Providence is instead u...

* My illustrious Craft Beer Christmas Tree. Could only work in a mid-brow neighborhood! A few years ago when going through the most recent shipwreck in my life (I have had a few) I wanted to swim away from the wreckage. To get the flock out my circumstances. Returning to my previous townhouse felt like defeat writ large. I was a second away from buying a townhome in Lancaster City for $185K. I could live in the city rather than the beat-up 'burbs where my current townhouse is situated. I'd be cosmopolitan, sort-of (as cosmopolitan as Lancaster can be). And, about a 100K poorer. As I looked at the contract from the real estate agent, I had an epiphany of sorts. Besides the upgrades in locale, appliances, and accouterments, my present townhouse and the townhouse to-be were essentially the same functionally. I liked the idea of living in the city but also worried that it would be easier to spend money wining and dining. I'd be a short walk-away from a lot of opportuniti...

Yesterday, I spent about six hours working on an essay about Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. It is freely chosen work. Even though it is not easy to write in a way, I do like writing. Shoot, I have been writing Bierkergaard for a decade now....long after most of those who blogged at one time started, stopped, started, stopped.  Bierkergaard, est. 2007. Thinking about getting a tee-shirt made. I was talking to a couple of my students the other day and asked them if they thought being "smart was cool?" Or, maybe I phrased it like this, "Is it possible to be cool and smart?" Almost like a logic problem. The guys agreed that it was possible to be cool and smart, that it is not one or the other. I shared with them that on the whole I was a good to great student throughout my schooling--and I got better over time. And, I think most of my peers along the way would have called me "cool." I was always a popular kid because I was an athlete yet my identity took a se...

Sorry about not blogging last week. If you are reading this, you survived despite my absence. Good! If you didn't. SORRY! I don't mean to play my theological hand so bluntly; that people exist after they pass. For good of for ill.  No Nihilist am I.  Over the Thanksgiving Weekend Continuum (Thursday to Monday) I was visiting Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) and Buffalo, New York. Initially, I had planned to be in Buffalo only but part of my Fam planned to be in Niagara Falls for Thanksgiving Thursday, which as my brother reminded me several weeks ago, is not Thanksgiving in Canada. I think the "Eh?" nation is earlier in Oct/Nov. So, it wound up being serendipitous that the familial stars aligned. We went out for sushi and sake. On Friday morning early before crossing back into the States, I went for a run. The purpose of doing so was two-fold. One, to get some exercise and fresh air. Two, so that I could figure out how to get across the Rainbow Bridge back int...

More @AndyRichter I have been followed by an ever-present amorphous sadness for almost my entire life. I am 51 yrs old. It varies in strength from a casual unresolvable suspicion that I will never find the joy that others do in a sunset, to the feeling that being dead might a respite and a kindness Cause he's still coming around like an injured bird needing a nest A place to rest his head in a song you'll regret Still you take him, Lord knows I don't want to compete Still I sleep in the very sheets he's been in Swallow him whole like a pill that makes you choke, steals your soul You have the nerve to look me in the eyes and lie Send him back, I won't share the trap that you have me in Is he still coming around like an injured bird needing a nest A place to rest his head in a song you'll regret Still you take him, Lord knows I don't want to compete Still I sleep in the very sheets he's been in. Dami...

The abyss of our natures can only be filled by Christ - O. Chambers The younger girl killed in this story had attended our middle school in the District where I work. She hadn't befriended a lot of kids. Sounds like she was with us for a year and then moved elsewhere, back to the 'hood. Where she was murdered. Only a few kids saw me when they heard. One aspect of what made this so sad was that her death seemed be silenced by her lack of being known. She was with us and left. Not many memories of her remained. But for the kids who did know her, they cried out like Abel's blood from the ground.  She loved to sing according to her two best friends at our school. Her spilled blood laments. "I was somebody, I am not a statistic. I have a soul."       I have worked with teenagers for 30 years. I have earned the right to be heard and heeded. I know of what I speak and write. I have worked hard, studied hard, and sacrificed more than anyone would know to be in thi...

Tuesday we had a Professional Development at work. Each quarter, several departments collectively provide breakfast for our colleagues. For the last 15 years or so, I have been bringing bagels. Being that I live in Central Pennsylvania, legit bagels are hard to find. Most of them are baked like bread, in the shape of a bagel but not made as a bagel should be. Simply, it should be boiled in water before baking. This process gives the bagel a crispy outside and a deliciously tender and chewy inside. And, the bagels go stale quick. Nothing better than a bagel freshly made. There is a place nearby that make bagels correctly. The downside is that the bagels are costly. Over a dollar a piece. I have stopped looking at the receipt and just hand over my credit card. I take one for the team and my colleagues appreciate it. Since I am a Central Pa. transplant, hailing from the Philly 'burbs, I am probably a bit more cosmopolitan than most in these parts. Essentially, I was raised in the...