I’ve found a new place to hang out. The San Francisco Coffee joint in Candler Park, on Dekalb Ave at Clifton Rd. Very nice. Great music, easygoing vibe. No self-promoting “personal trainers” or “life coaches” loudly expressing their sage advice, based upon a 25-year-old lifetime of experience. People having conversations; and yes, people screwed into their laptops, hopefully creating something wonderful, but likely updating their Facebook feed.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Cafe culture in the US is a little different from that in Europe. In the US, it’s a place to get away, to quietly be among people in order to mind your own cyber-business. Either that, or it’s a place for drive-through caffeine fix, or a quick dash-in to order an espresso drink from a behind-the-counter hipster.
My experience in Europe is that cafes are places where people meet to talk, to discuss, to enjoy a bold cup of coffee (usually in a proper ceramic cup) and to wile away an hour or so reading, meeting new people, catching up with old friends.
Each "gestalt" fits its geographic location. As Europe becomes more Americanized, with Starbucks and McDonalds and Pizza Hut and KFC franchises blooming like spring flowers in the major cities (and a lot of the out-of-the-way towns as well), the “to-go/drive-thru” mentality is becoming less an anomaly and more the norm. When I left my neighborhood in Sweden a dozen years ago, you couldn’t even get a cup of coffee to go; there was only one McDonalds drive-through within an hour’s drive. Now, you see people walking to work with a Starbucks cup in their hand. And Swedes are actually eating in their cars on the way from the office to the excellent, local state-supported day care center.
All of which is an indication that the Speed of Life is ever-increasing. It’s practically consumed our nation. The six-year-old son of a friend of mine in Nashville actually chose a gas station burrito as his food of choice to celebrate his seventh birthday. In the boy’s world, man, that was Good Eatin’!
Gandhi said that "there's more to Life than increasing its speed." That existential acceleration is one of the reasons that this particular San Francisco Coffee location is such an oasis. It’s a little off the grid, so to speak. It’s very European in that it offers a selection of actual food choices — choices that don’t come wrapped in cellophane, prepared at some distant “processing plant.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll drive-through a Starbucks on the way from Point A to Point B, just as much as the next guy. But it’s really, REALLY nice to have the option to get off the Salad Spinner of Life once in awhile to just "be".
Who knows? I might actually have a real conversation with a real person in real time. Social networking without the laptop.
And without a net.
Exhilarating!
