Blakes' Cafe and St. James: the great equalizers

Blakes cafe on Carrall and St. James (Anglican) church live out my desire for change.

Everyone who lives around Blakes knows it's the neighbourhood place to go. It's like in the movies - neighbours meet each other, share a coffee, introduce friends, and the owner and her staff know us all (tons of 'regulars). That's all good, but what I really like is this.

In the summer I would sit outside sipping my latte and scanning the paper. Each week, there were various small groups of men who would also be out there. Eventually I discovered they were from out of town, and in some kind of detox program nearby (I guess). I was touched by their courage, and that this kind of recovery was going on in the midst of this particular area -- it's some kind of sign. And that's not all. I have frequently seen people who are in varying degrees of housing. And there we all are, enjoying our respective coffees.

In all my countless visits, I've yet to see any offensive or challenging behaviour. I can only imagine that Jan (the owner) and the staff have learned how to handle touchy situations, and also, I think they're just so respectful that in turn we all conduct ourselves sociably while there. Now ... how can we expand that out and out and out?

Similarly, I attend mass at St. James. When I go up for communion, I am literally at the altar rail with the mentally challenged, professors, hookers, trans-gendered, lawyers, addicts, homeless, in-and-out-of-jail people, and the rest of us who pass (operative word) for normal. Again, for 90 minutes every week we seem to figure out how to be with one another in a really healthy way. Or at least we make a fumbling attempt to. And that's worth something.