"Hi Al, this is the bread guy..."
I receive this greeting every Monday evening from the French Bread Guy. He tells me the three varieties of bread that he is making and I place my order (so far I have bought, sourdough buns, a walnut loaf, a whole wheat loaf, and soon a oregano garlic loaf). The bread will arrive Tuesday night at the Commonplace Coffeehouse. I love Tuesday nights at work. One, because my bread is coming and two, because I am able to break bread with people who are in the shop at the same time I receive my bread. I become so overjoyed I must share this wonderful bread with two or three people.
There is something about this that has and is becoming quite clear to me. Is it that bread possesses these unnamed powers? or is it that there is something about food and The French Bread Guy that naturally excites and pulls people together?
There is a student whom I order a loaf of bread for too. She comes in and pays me for her bread. Next she sits on the couch and cuts slices of bread and passes it out to anyone in the vicinity of her seat. It is a delight to look around the shop and see people strangely connected through slices of bread. I absolutely love it.
The more that I sit and work at this shop the more my definition of community is being redefined. I have become sick of the word and yet cannot get it out of my head. This bread and this concept of delivering bread is outside the normalcy of how we live today in America. Yet there is something intriguing and quite pleasant about it's delivery. Maybe it's that his little daughter decorates each bag as he bakes or that all the ingredients are natural and posses no preservatives.
With all of this to say...I love bread and enjoy the fact that a man who lives in this community is willing to drive around Indiana, Pa and deliver bread to each person on his list. What if we lived like this daily? What if there were more French Bread Guys and what if...what if we honestly spent the money and time to serve and be apart of the places we live.
Just thinking of this makes me hungry.
5 comments:
Maybe it's just me, but I think the cook deserve more credit than the guy who drives it around.
...unless it's the same person.
This may be the most wonderful thing I've ever heard of. I love bread.
Your description of the arrival of bread and the way you have to share it reminds me of Acts 2, where the description of the early church includes sharing a meal and breaking bread together. I have a feeling this original celebration of the Lord's supper looked more like what you are describing than the Sunday morning silver plate of crackers that gets passed from row to row as people sit solemnly while "The Old Rugged Cross" comes through the organ speakers. I sometimes wonder what our churches would look like if our communion services were full of people excited to share bread with each other.
I wish I had a bread man who came to my house and knew me by name.
what about the olive & whatever loaf?
i wonder in what ways we do this and don't realize it? i mean, how do we (maybe we don't?) serve others already, but perhaps it isn't as tangible as a loaf of bread...
i was thinking, too, that this is part of the beauty of rural community...a community that provides services for each other, and while it's partially a responsibility, it also becomes a joy.
and i wouldn't mind a bread man, either. or a milkman. or perhaps both?!
Jeff:
I would tend to agree. It probably was a natural way of life that had a wonderful celebration around it. Ah, and what a great picture you just pasted in my mind. However, I think what you are talking about hits a wide range of ideas. First, what if we took our salvation seriously, there would be a heck of a lot of celebrating going on in worship and in teaching on Sundays.... Thank you for this reminder!
Joel:
Yes! How can I forget the Olive Rosemary (it didn't last long, and that is maybe why I forgot I even had it). This week I got Garlic Oregano (maybe my favorite thus far).
And I do not just think this is the beauty of a rural community...it can be urban as well. Makes more sense if it were urban to be honest because of people living in closer quarters. In other words, this should be happening everywhere. I'm not shooting your comment down, just making a blanketed statement about how we should live this way. I think that is why we all long for it, in a strange way.
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