Awhile back I finally had to confess that deep down I am a romantic. I don’t mean that I enjoy romantic comedies and get all sappy around Valentines Day, I mean that I tend to have an idealistic view of the world. I like to see things in our world as good verses evil and often find more good in the older forms of things than the newer. I genuinely hope there is a place for emotion in our daily experiences with one another and have a general distrust for technologies that pull us away from such interactions.

It is in the spirit of my romantic ideals that I offer the following observations about beauty and wonder that is your local neighborhood bar.

A “bar” is nothing more than a piece of furnishing in a pub. You sit at the bar, you order a drink at the bar, you talk to strangers sitting next to you at the bar, etc. A “pub” is shorthand for a public house which is a drinking establishment open to the public, in earlier times such places where the heartbeat of the community. This is where news was relayed and important debates were settled. Now it is this old reality of a public house which still lingers today making your neighborhood bar a thing of beauty.

A bar is a place where people meet. All kinds of people; bikers and yuppies, hipsters and jocks, Christians and heathens. Sure it may be a place where bad decisions are made, but it is also a place where friendships flourish and love is ignited. It is the people, not the alcohol, that make bars special. A bar is a rare thing, it is a safe place for people to gather for no other purpose than to be with other people and share a few drinks. This is something to be cherished in our day and age not shunned.

Over the next few Friday’s we will be examining the true romance of the bar in hopes that you will venture out yourselves. As a matter of fact you might as well get started tonight. Get a sitter for the kids or call some old friends and meet down at the bar.

Cheers!!