Off to the coffee shop this morning to do some writing. I like the place, which is a national chain, but I miss the independent coffee shop that operated in our town for a while. Eventually I may branch out to an independent shop that I've heard about in nearby Maplewood, MO.
When we lived in Akron, OH, I loved going to the Nervous Dog Coffee House. I wrote there a lot, sometimes a couple hours a day if I was in the midst of a writing project. One of my books contains an acknowledgment to that coffee shop, though at that time it was called Coco's under earlier management. When I'm back visiting friends, the coffee shop that was a different kind of friend is a fun stop.
It is wonderful that some pastors whom I know are doing office hours in coffee shops and similar places. To me, that's being out there were the people are. Just hanging around the coffee in case someone dropped by seemed, to me, a less effective approach to ministry.
One of J.S. Bach's cantatas is "Schweigt stille, plaudit nicht" (BWV 211, "Be still, stop chattering"), also known as the Coffee Cantata. Essentially a short opera, the piece tells of a father, Schlendrian, who is trying to get his daughter, Lieschen, to stop drinking so much coffee! She says, "Without my morning coffee, I’m just like a dried up piece of roast goat.” Poor Lieschen!
Apparently an outcome of the Turkish invasion of Vienna was the popularization of coffee. The Turks had coffee houses before Europeans, and soon coffee houses were popular throughout Europe. I found a website that tells of famous people's addiction, like Voltaire who drank 40 cups a day, Rousseau and Pope who sang its praises, and Jefferson, who considered it "the favorite drink of the civilized world."
So I'm dressed and off with my laptop! A strong brew awaits with my name on it.
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