please remain alone and isolated at all times

I took this picture as my husband and I prepared to leave Arkansas last week. Anyone who can identify the restaurant by the "Enter" sign wins a Wildesign mug. I'll give you a clue: they're more prolific than McDonald's the further south you drive, and they seem to be based on the old 1950's drive-up diners (although, regrettably, the servers don't wear roller skates).

It was that last bit that made me want the picture.

Here we were, in small-town America, at a fast-food joint that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars every year marketing itself as a modern rendition of a hip, retro diner. When you think about said diners, what comes to mind?

I imagine teenagers parked next to their friends, yelling and throwing things at each other's cars. I imagine that the four plastic picnic tables out front are swarming with high school students. I imagine somewhere, some couple is making out in someone's back seat, someone is waiting for a friend to show up, someone is getting in a fight, someone is on a first date, someone is fleeing a mid-life crisis, and someone has given in to the kids' request to eat here tonight because - what the hey - it's Saturday night.

I do not imagine a sign that says, "No Cruising or Loitering."

What if McDonald's started posting signs in their Play Places that said, "No laughing?"

The crisis of Third Place Space re-emerged in my mind, and as we drove past the sign again to leave my husband reminded me that we were still, technically, on vacation and he doesn't have the resources to create such a space so please stop trying to sell him one.

The lack of Third Place Spaces in our society is a problem. Sooner or later someone will answer the call to start recreating real community space again. Someone will lead the charge, inspire passion in our hearts, and probably make a lot of money or a name for himself in the process. Or the Church can jump the curve and do it first in Jesus' name and for the glory of the kingdom of God.