The Cheap Seats

My son was in Prague, Czech Republic yesterday - 4,573 airline miles from Minnesota and over 3,000 from his college home in Boston. This is his third trip to Europe in 18 months. He has been fortunate enough to have opportunities like this and equally adventurous enough to take advantage of them. Travel of any kind requires three things: desire, planning, and resources. But so do many other calculated risks we may or may not take throughout life that get us out of our comfort zone. Desire has to trump fear. Planning has to overcome uncertainty. Resources have to be marshaled. I'm not talking about  grand plan  Bucket Lists. This isn't a call to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, hike the Appalachian Trail, or - Gump-like - run from one American coast to the other. Sure, those sound like worthy and exciting endeavors, but for most people they simply aren't realistic. Instead, I am referring to living an authentic life. ...

National conversations have been coming at the American people in a dizzying fashion of late, all thanks to the National Football League. The professional sport that dominates the hearts and minds of a rabid fan base has been the talk of the nation for entirely unwanted reasons. The subculture of domestic violence that is exists within the league is well documented. No reasonable person can defend it (though a few ex-jock talking heads have tried). Ray Rice's videotaped assault of his then-girlfriend was merely the tipping point of a decades-long crisis of credibility within the sport. Any national discussion of the issue has only cemented the consensus that domestic violence is abhorrent and criminal. Not so with the case of Adrian Peterson. Water cooler discussions at workplaces and around kitchen tables in homes have been diverse and lively:  - Adrian Peterson is a child abuser.  - Adrian Peterson has a right to discipline his c...

Fall - like any season - is all about perspective. Some people like the cooler temperatures and a return to normalcy, while others see the season only as a desperately short respite until the arrival of a long, frigid winter. Perspective - always in the eye of the beholder. Each fall I launch another school year with an introduction to the concept of perspective. Middle schoolers, whose brains are beginning to bristle with ever-more complex ideas and opinions, are ripe for my droning lecture and examples. "Kids, when expressing your perspective remember, there is no right or wrong, only opinion." Yes, Mr. Bergman . Ironically, perspective has two definitions that maddeningly defy one another. The concept I teach students, that perspective is the way people interpret something based on their own personal experience and understanding , should lead towards the other perspective -  possessing insight and wisdom acquired over time th...

A chill wind betrays this time each year, conjuring up smells, throwing me backwards to youth when all that mattered to a boy was now and the next day. Flooded with fumes of fall and football and friendship was a clear expectation of something about to happen, hopefully a girl's glance or smile or her hand in mine. The past and future was held firmly at bay, the present lengthened and amplified to infinity, heightening the urgency of each memory and moment. Now, cut grass and cool mornings intertwine creating a longing I chase that is nearly tangible, to be that boy again who was more ignorant than knowing. But fixed here instead, I look forward with anticipation to each new autumn's annual power to send me back on an elusive breeze that carries yesterday with it.

I went to the Minnesota State Fair Saturday. I don't think I had been there since 2006. The Great Minnesota Get-Together was not a part of my childhood. I didn't go to my first Fair until 1987, spending a day there with my mom. We started by eating cinnamon bread the size and shape of an elephant's ear (which I think was its name) and concluded the day by making a mad dash to the car through a downpour after seeing George Jones and Willie Nelson play at the Grandstand. Fast-forward 27 years and those two memories are all I can recall from that first time at the Fair. In between I'm sure we ate, strolled through buildings, sat in on product demonstrations, ate, saw livestock, hiked up Machinery Hill, ate, stepped around fresh manure, watched a hunk of butter transformed into a girl's head, ate . . . Like two recent parolees, we undoubtedly couldn't get enough of conspicuous consumption. The more things change the more they stay the same. I had n...

Goodbye Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, there is a new fundraising template in town and its name is the Ice Bucket Challenge. If you're like me, you will be wiping away wistful tears at the thought of never seeing Jerry Lewis painfully crank out his version of My Way each time Ed McMahon announces more dollars on the tote-board every Labor Day - but whether it is education, business, or the fund-raising game - the old adage is still fresh, Adapt or Die . To be fair, I'm actually not sure if Jerry or Ed are still with us, but I digress. The ALS Association (short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Lou Gehrig's Disease) can adapt with the best of them. Raising awareness (and dollars) has never been simpler or more fun. Star in a one minute video, donate money to ALS, challenge friends to do the same, take a bucket of ice water for the team. Easy peazy. The Challenged becomes The Challenger. A brilliant and benevolent pyramid scheme that increases exponentially and ...

Social media is tailor-made to magnify and dissect celebrity death. The why, how, where, and when of public figures' passings seem to fascinate and preoccupy an adoring fandom, sometimes to the exclusion of their living accomplishments. Think Amelia Earhart, Buddy Holly, John Kennedy, Roberto Clemente, Princess Diana. Death has a blurring effect on life. But not in the case of Robin Williams. The comedian's recent death - and the upsetting circumstances surrounding it - will not blur or obscure the body of work he left for us to enjoy. To us he will always be Mork or Adrian Kronauer or Mr. Keating or Genie or Sean Maguire or Patch Adams or Mrs. Doubtfire. He will not be remembered as that stand-up comic who committed suicide. Never. Yes, those who personally knew Robin Williams are feeling and grieving his loss. But our grief (if it can even be called that) is of a different nature, more circumspect and searching. More often than not, we are wondering gen...