Hospitality Is More Than Just Hosting

When I was a child my parents explicitly forbade me from drinking coffee because it "would stunt my growth". Of course that didn't stop me. Now I'm a six-foot-four oaf that gets asked to play Goliath in church plays.

 

My guess is that if I didn't sneak the contraband maybe I'd have a blossoming career as a Chewbacca double.

 

For some reason, my parents would serve coffee as desert. Maybe it was decaf, maybe not. It didn't seem to make a difference to me because I just wanted to sneak some of the forbidden darkness. It was, however a part of the evening after a meal where they could talk, I mean REALLY talk, with their guests for the evening.

 
This is what I believe to be central to coffee: communion.

Coffee, tea, other... adult beverages... are central to joining people together. In this current divisive political climate I see something encouraging and uplifting that I haven't seen before. I have started to see people who disagree attempt to get together, usually over coffee, to hash it out.

This is not an unfamiliar concept in the course of human history. In ancient Israel, the concept of "breaking bread" was one of peacemaking between injured parties. The idea was that, once you ate from the same loaf of bread, you were not at odds with each other any more because you had both experienced something together. Think of a buddy cop movie where they start out hating each other but end up being best friends because of the ordeal they went through together.

I think of coffee and tea in the same way. You might be using a teapot of a French press or sharing a pour-over but you are now brought together because of a shared experience.

So go forth and share caffeine!

As always folks,

Drink Valiantly!