September 29, 2024

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

If I were in Germany or old Prussia today, land of the Gunther side of my ancestors, and it was between 2-5 p.m., especially on a Sunday, I would sit down to “Kaffee und Kuchen,” coffee and cake with friends. A social time. Conversational.

Civilized, and there are similar traditions in other countries. The need to gather, to talk but also to listen, when fulfilled, is a renewed stitching of the human quilt.

Some of us are talkers, some incessant but others gifted with meaning in their words and sentences, the verbal punctuation of which can be theatre. We have all hung on a particular person’s words, intonation, even her/his pauses, and, yes, silence. Telling it all is.

But we have listeners, too, those who wander into their own thought, perhaps taking a tangent route from something the talker has said. Other listeners simply enjoy the music, the rhythm of the speaker. Some may feel intimidated by speaking. Still others might think the entire gathering soapbox.

But, ah, mit Kaffee und Kuchen, there is invitation to gather with friends, to sit comfortably, to sip favorite brew and eat cake that seems simple but whose ingredients, like those of the assembled group, are balanced and enhancing.

Just about right for a Sunday afternoon.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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