Welcome to my Cave! My mundane name is Chris Sherbak, but my online handle is DruBear, which pretty much covers how I primarily think about myself: being a Druid and a Bear.
But don't get me wrong, I'm a computer geek for most of the week, here's my resume if you don't believe me. Or you can just contact me if want to register your amazement.
I don't worship trees (even though most of 'em are pretty kewl), but I do regard the Earth as a Goddess, and deserving not only of honor and respect but having rituals to praise Her and the other Gods and Goddesses. I don't do blood sacrifice (although the Ancients did, but not very often) but more likely cookies or barley or beer, depending on my mood, the Gods' moods or the season. I'm big on seasons, too, even though nowadays we're not so dependent on knowing when they occur or making sure it rains when it's supposed to or warm up when we need it. But keeping track of the cycle of the year is very healthy, and helps to remind us that we are but passengers on this Spaceship Earth, our Mother, albeit armed with some pretty nasty in-flight toys that could make the journey pretty unhealthy for ourselves (not to mention our fellow travelers.)
I express being a Druid by being a member of ADF (Ar nDraiocht Fein, or A Druid Fellowship if you just can't stand Gaelic) which was started many years ago by a somewhat wacky, but usually affable, dude named Isaac Bonewits. I read his book "Real Magic" and thought his ideas were very kewl, and wanted to join up with the RDNA (Reformed Druids of North America) with whom he was having a love/hate relationship. We met, and he ordained me into the SDNA (the Schismatic Druids of North America) and I thought I was hot sh*t for a while. What I was was much too young to realize my potential, but I continued on anyway.
I also joined the Church of the Eternal Source (CES - a NeoPagan religion that was the refounding of the ancient Egyptian religion) and the Church of All Worlds (CAW - a religion founded by Tim Zell, who now goes by the name Oberon, that still exists - http://www.caw.org - and publishes "Green Egg," the arguably best NeoPagan magazine of all times.) At that point in my life (the late 70's and early 80's) I was pretty busy not being a Druid, but just a NeoPagan (and even cavorted with known Witches), but it helped me understand myself and my philosophical urges.
Isaac got very fed up with RDNA and decided to hive off and found
his own group, called ADF. Although
he's stepped down as ArchDruid (basically a combination of president
and pope), I'm still pretty deeply involved with that, being a Senior
Druid (leader) of the Grove (congregation) here in Chicago (Wild Onion
Grove, ADF Schedule) and the Coordinator Emeritus of the Solitary
Special Interest Group. (I wrote something to help new ADF Solitaries
out - but you might find it helpful too: First Steps for
Sols.) I have my own love/hate relationship with ADF, but at the
moment I'm sticking with it. Here's the rutual we're going to use for Imbolg '04.
I've also re-joined CAW, and hope to get involved with the Nest that's starting up here in Chicago. I don't think I want to be overly involved (I've got enuf to do with ADF!) but I think I have some talents that the locals and national might be able to use.
I'm a member of the Great Lakes Bears, Chicago, and was elected Membership Chairman a while back. That was real kewl, but a new regime has taken over and I've decided to step back a bit from leadership there and just concentrate on having a fun time with the Club and various other people I've met through them. Of course I'll still be going to Bear Pride, GLB's big annual fur fest, so don't think I've given up totally on this "bear thing." (Despite what you may have heard, I'm not quite "bear'd out" just yet...)
Or if you're on AOL, I can be found there as DruBear (funny how that works, eh?) although I check it only about once every couple of days. There's also a amazingly lame-o Web page there that you can access there via http://hometown.aol.com/DruBear. AOL also provides a pretty kewl facility called AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) that allows non-AOL members to IM (Instant Message - a one-to-one chat) with AOL members or others on AIM. It's free, so why not? AOL people are accessible there with their AOL id, so you can find me on AIM as DruBear too!
Speaking of responding very quickly, my very first Internet access was a shell account at the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (work with me, we'll get to it) which I still have 'cause the Well is trés kewl, even after all these years. It has aged a whole lot better than most of us, and I keep my account there to encourage them, and to make me think I'm part of something, well, special. My address there is csherbak@well.com. The only bad thing about my relationship with the Well (it's always about me,isn't it?) is that I don't really check it very often, although I still have the account (that's where you're reading this, silly) and there's FTP space available (see my file page for stuff I have there.)
Ok, so I'm a geek. The lastest thing is being online and available all the time. I use AOL Instant Messenger (where I'm Drubear) and ICQ (#6593002) so feel free to send me a chat request when you see me. OTOH, if you need to get to me during the day, you can always use my work address at csherbak@tuc.com. But keep it clean, OK? You never know who's watching...the truth is out there...
My FOAF info is at .