Loneliness and Coffeehouse Community

I recently saw a book in my school’s library that was basically about why people felt comfortable at Starbucks and not at church.  The author tried to break it down into a handful of main points – things that the church could change to be more like Starbucks/welcoming.  I thought it was sort of a preposterous idea, so I picked it up and glanced through it.  This did nothing to quell my thoughts of its silliness.

The church should be more welcoming, sure.  There are lots of things it could improve – understanding, compassion, honesty, openness, etc., and there are lots of churches and parachurch organizations that are working on it.

However, Starbucks is not a place to be loved.  It is a place to be ignored.  Isn’t that easy to see?  You go in with (a) friend(s), order coffee, and sit and chat with the friends you came with.  Your interactions will be with people you already know, and the usually impersonal barista.  What is communal about that?  Starbucks is a status/lifestyle choice.  Not everyone there is going to fit into the Starbucks stereotypes, some just go because they want coffee/pastries/something else.  But as far as I can tell, no one goes to feel accepted.  It’s comfortable because it is safe – you can be yourself, with your friends, and no one cares.

Does the church really want to be that?  Accepting, loving, caring, yes.  But a place to go to be ignored?  Of course not.  I’m blogging this from a Panera, where I’ve interacted with 2 humans in 1 hour, only for exchanges (my money for that coffee + breakfast sandwich, “where do I put the buzzer?” “in the basket, and take your sandwich.”)  Then I sat down, checked my email, the blogs I read, and the news, put headphones in, and now I’m writing this.  I overhear some middle aged-or-older business man talking to a younger Panera regular workout wannabe surfer guy about blogs and social networking, and chuckle, but that’s not community.  That’s loneliness.

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Tags: Starbucks, Panera, eavesdropping, community, church, excessive punctuation

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New Fandom

I have never been a particularly avid fan of any professional soccer leagues, despite my participation in the sport during my younger days.  I have always enjoyed it, but as you might know, our American soccer league, the MLS, is good (and steadily improving), but not great.  I have not even chosen to throw my nominal fandom behind any one international professional team.  I do hope that the American national team succeeds, but do not really follow them when it is not World Cup time.

However, I think that the choice has been made for me.  My Dad, who occasionally travels to the UK for business purposes, has returned with a pretty awesome Liverpool scarf for me.  As I see it, that’s as good a reason as any to get behind one team.  Liverpool is normally very competitive, and the family that I stayed with in Ireland cheers for them, too.

So I have tentatively become a Liverpool FC fan.

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Tags: reallyrandom

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It’s been too long.

Wow, has it been forever since I’ve done this, or what?
I’m finished with Sophomore year, and summer usually affords more time for things like this, so maybe I’ll start posting semi-regularly again.

Rounding up some odds and ends…

• My friend Megan has started a blog, you can find it here.  Expect a literary focus – some original stuff, plus some of her favorites.  Megan is a tremendous person and friend, not to mention incredibly intelligent – I haven’t read many of her pieces up til now, but I expect big things.
• This is not new, but I’ve started using it – twitter.com.  You know how facebook has status updates?  Twitter is based all around that idea.  Just a nice, cute, quick way to stay informed about what your friends are up to.  I not very connected on there yet, but add me if we’re real life buds.
• CWillZ introduced me to a new web browser, built with Mozilla Firefox.  Firefox was formerly my default browser, but now I’m using Flock.  It’s like Firefox – one negative:  no add-ons (but other customizable options) – but more geared toward being the ideal Web 2.0 browser.  I can’t really do it justice by describing it in this bulletpoint here, but check out the site, give it a try.
• note: if you don’t…
• social network (i.e. facebook, twitter, myspace, etc.)
• have multiple email accounts
• get regular news from the interweb (especially if you don’t use RSS feeds)
• blog

…then it’s probably an unnecessary addition – just use Firefox.  But if you do any of those things, it’s great (I’m posting this blog via its built-in editor).

Oh, one more thing:  congrats, graduating seniors.  I love you, will miss you, and wish you the best.  Hopefully our paths will cross again sooner than later.

Tags: hyperlinktastic, Megan’s blog, Web 2.0, CWillZ, college, Flock, twitter, facebook

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