Total Possibility

I was hanging out with my brother Mark, and we happend to walk into a little place called the German Village Coffee shop.  (Visit their website)  I had never been there before, yet I HAD been there before.  What I mean by that is that I hadn’t been to that particular coffee shop, but it was your basic greesy spoon type place which every small community has.  No frills, no bells and whistles, just great food, people talking, and spunky waitresses. (Hi Debbie and Liz!)  Actually I have to say that two things made our lunch today at the German Village Coffee shop- the pancakes as big as my head (and that is saying a lot… have you ever seen MY head?) and those two affore mentioned waitresses.  If the food was horrible I would go back for the fun waitresses we had there.

 This is the type of place that remninds you of that famous picture of James Dean, Humphry Bogart, and Marilyn Monroe on the corner cafe.  (It is Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Helwein)

Instead of the “atmosphere” that is created by those chain places that we all know about, this place had real character.  It had, as my brother likes to say, “texture.”

Not only did it have texture, but it had one of those “timeless” feels to it.  Hanging on the wall were pictures of that place from decades past.  Guys with pomade slicking their hair back and looking cool with their cups of joe and cigarrettes hanging out of their mouths.  I don’t know the particualr history of the German Village Cafe as of yet (I am sure I will though) but even though the interior has changed as many times as the owners, there is that timeless quality that will always exist: a place where people come together to talk and eat.

The pictures on the wall put that place into a context- it wasn’t just another place to eat: this place had some history to it.  You could feel it when you walked in, and hear it as the hashbrowns sizzled on the griddle.  It was like a house that had that live in feel, or a chapel that had been “prayed in.”  There was a remarkable energy that was both old and new.

I love looking at photos of people.  They are memories that are captured in amber, which put us into context as well.  We need context- we need “texture” – we need to know that our lives have that “lived in” feel.  Photos, like the ones on the wall at the German Street Coffee shop let us remember the remarkable people that have come into our lives.  Some come into our lives and pass through quickly, while other are “regulars” in our lives.

I love both.  I love meeting people for just a few moments- sort of like visiting a new restaurant for the first time and trying the “special”- and I like deepening existing friendships- sort of like being a regular at a cafe where the food is good, and the spunky waitresses know you by name!