In the Shadow of the Temple

I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Independence, MO, and they're having a trivia contest.

Even though this city is more than twice the size of the town I grew up in (not a small town itself even), I feel a though I am in a small, close knit community. This could be because so many of these people share a common faith - like being in a Catholic community or a city where 90% of the churches are Baptist.

I feel as though I could come here every Tuesday to witness or participate in this little trivia contest. It's just the kind of extracurricular life I had been hoping to experience, even if there doesn't seem to be a twenty-something in sight.

The thing is, I am reminded of a movie, probably a real one, where a stranger intrudes on the life of a small town community. And I can be that stranger. It's not that I want to intrude on these people's lives. But I love the idea of the unknown here.

At work people come and go all the time. But this is the start of a real story. I can impact these people and they can impact me. And for the first time in a long time, I can feel like the hero of my own story.

Perhaps I'll never come back here. Maybe I won't have time, or maybe I'll finid a better place to study - a younger place, a place with better coffee.

But the picture on the wall reminds me that I could never find a coffee shop like this in all the world, and maybe things are coming full circle. Perhaps this could be my home.