The Light - MyThirdPlace

Ambience and coffee tables The Light – MyThirdPlace The Light. Biblical connotations of clarity, salvation and meaning. That might seem a little dramatic for your local coffee shop, but this particular Third Place sustains many in my oft’ forgotten market-town. Head towards The Light, son Being uniquely integrated into the cinema, adjacent to the river from which Thetford gets its name, allows for a diverse cross-section of people to be drawn into the cafe. A myriad of boardgames entice those that might want to try their hand at Magic the Gathering, or an array of other games that I fail to comprehend. The delight on the player’s faces, coupled with their enthused conversations, tell me that concrete bonds have formed. Joy and connection are the end-goal. Seems like they’re winning to me. Take your pick Cinephiles will arrive for obvious reasons. Thematic re-runs are always in rotation. Bladerunner, The Godfather, Goodfellas. Roger Ebert would be proud. This isn’t a domain that gatekeeps or excludes, however. What use would that be for building community? It’s an institution that caters for all ages, all tastes. A litany of young families come in the hope of entertaining their children, ensuring a gaggle of kids always interact within the arena of the cafe. Their currents of energy buoy those that might be tempted to feel a little more jaded than the average six year old. Clark Gable and other Hollywood legends plaster the walls, looking to perhaps spark nostalgia in an older demographic. That demographic also comprises an important part of the foot-fall to The Light; bringing their newspapers and more often than not, coins of pound sterling. The Man, The Myth Somewhere, within this mix, my friends and I step in. A few twenty and thirty something’s. Men trying to do their best to challenge endemic issues of isolation and emotional illiteracy that seemed fused to our gender. We sometimes come after a run (on a productive day), occasionally after a hastily eaten Gr...