How we go out matters. The last thing we do in life actually happens after we are gone, when the will is read. For most of us, it's our only postmortem message to the world. Many people seem to think that their will is their last chance to shit on people, to let them know…
Faith and Obligation?
If something is an obligation, is doing it really faith or rather fear of punishment? Those of us raised in small-c catholic traditions may recall the idea of holy days of obligation. These were days wherein church attendance was considered mandatory, and failure to attend was considered sin unless you had an officially sanctioned reason…
What is getting ahead?
Americans tend to view getting ahead as acquiring more stuff. Houses, cars, furniture, appliances, vacation homes, boats, motorcycles, and more define where we believe we stand measured against other people. As Roxy and I were taking our walk today we met two little boys and their mother. The boys asked if they could pet Roxy,…
What if you died and nobody cared?
My father died a couple of weeks ago. I found out last Thursday, but he died the Friday before that. The only reason I found out is that my brother's ex-wife lives in Florida a few doors away from someone who used to live in the same town outside Milwaukee where my father and his…
Life is Cheap
Have you noticed? Life is cheap. Usually when we talk about life being cheap we are talking about life in the hood, where nobody really expects to live past twenty-five anyway so why not just kill whoever crosses our path? It's much safer to talk about life in the hood being cheap because when we…
Holiday Reflections
My wife Erin and I were in a fairly significant car accident Friday night when a pickup truck ran a red light. While we are banged up pretty well, we are alive - and that's generally not something you think much about less than a week before the holidays. Ironically, the day before that I…
Decline, Death, and Family Matters
Nothing brings out skeletons from any family closet quite like decline and looming or actual death of matriarchs, patriarchs, and those in the family who wish they were either. In truth, it doesn't matter who is close to death and what our relationship to them might be, death brings out the worst in us. You…
Guns, Schools, and Selfishness
At a certain developmental stage, young children are appropriately concerned only about themselves and what they want. At that stage, that behavior is appropriate and we would be wrong (and ineffective) if we tried to hurry them out of that stage. We would interfere with their normal, healthy development, and they would suffer consequences at…
The Untimely Passing of Rachel Held Evans
As many if not most of you probably know by now, beloved conservative cum moderately progressive Christian author and speaker Rachel Held Evans passed away on May 4th at only thirty-seven years of age from complications of the flu and a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics. She is survived by, among others, her husband and…
Rationalism, Logic, and Reality
Many people believe that everything can be explained. I reject that idea. I am willing to accept that all mechanical processes can ultimately be explained - but how much of life is mechanical? Is love mechanical? Is childbirth mechanical? Is death mechanical? Is the feeling we experience at a great concert mechanical? The current tendency…
Craig Bergland 