Coffee and Connectivity

When Scraps first opened, we had one goal in mind for the coffee shop:  make the best coffee in town.  That goal still remains important to us, but over the years we have come to realize that something more important than coffee is served up at Scraps:  connectivity.  Connectivity speaks to the importance of human relationships, to the value of loving and being loved.  Since our opening day we have witnessed people being connected.  From the group of lifelong friends who gather every week for coffee and a treat, to the strangers who meet over coffee and become fast friends, to the men’s group that meets for bible study, Scraps is about providing an environment conducive to developing and strengthening relationships.

Unfortunately in our society, the value of human connection has largely been lost.  We no longer gather with friends in the evenings, because everyone is usually either working or watching tv.  We don’t sit out on our porch and talk to our neighbors because we’re all cocooned in our air-conditioned homes.  And we no longer converse in the town square because the town square has ceased to be the center point of community activity.  At every turn we have become more and more isolated from one another.  Even one of our most-prized national traits, our “rugged individualism”, fails us in this regard, as we look only within ourselves to find life’s answers, and fail to realize that we are social creatures first and foremost, and that we need each other in this life.  And finally we have lost the ability to find common ground amongst our differences, resulting in a society so partisan that we can barely even function in a democratic manner.

At Scraps we seek to reverse these societal trends.  We seek to help rebuild the “Public Square”, to rebuild connectedness within the community, to remember that, even when we don’t agree, we can still relate.  Our goal is to provide an atmosphere of peace, where people can retreat from the craziness of their day and find momentary sanity, and maybe find a fulfillment that was previously lacking.  Our prayer is that, with time, we as a community can return to an era when community was everything.  We hope that you will join us in this journey.

Mark and Tayleene