The Areopagus at Star Coffee

This week of work came to a close with a Saturday to spare before returning home. I’m looking forward to getting back but, with the day free, seizing the chance to hang out in Heidelberg is a good option.

It’s not the Areopagus at the invitation of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, however, Star Coffee, in the Altstadt, seems like a good place to get a feel for the city.

Hanging out with the locals is a practice I cherish. It’s a good one, too – at least if you’re more into people than castles. Lingering to read, to chat, to people watch, and take in the relational and local context environs is a good way to check the pulse of most communities. Heidelberg is no exception. It is buzzing with folks meeting, engaging, gazing to listen, and smiling – for the most part – at least it is so today.

I think Paul would add Star Coffee as a point of contact - along with synagogues and the marketplace in his practice of initiating in the culture - if he were here in this slice of time. Who knows? He may have ordered a double espresso macchiato and enjoyed a chat with a few of the folks lingering here, heute?

I know it’s not exactly preaching or reasoning with the Jews in synagogue but I really don’t think café preaching is on the list of best praxis for “how to engage the people of Heidelberg at Star Coffee”; nonetheless, I suspect he’d hang out - maybe frequently-here anyway. And, I bet, if he’d keep at it long enough, he’d find numerous invitations to visit the Areopagus of numerous hearts here in Heidelberg.

Tschüß