“Cheers” is the place where “everybody knows your name.” But places like Cheers are getting harder and harder to find.
I don’t need to tell you that there has been a major shift in the way that Americans have become consumers. Once upon a time, you would visit and support a small business not because it was “small business month,” but because you knew the person and expected they would stand by their product. We valued expertise and expected that an actual person would find the best fit for us.
Today, we buy our stuff on Amazon. We hardly know who is on the other end of mundane, let alone precious interactions. Our number one priority has become saving a dollar. We no longer care if someone knows your name, so long as the price is right. Relationships have been pushed aside in favor of transactions. We’ve become a one-size fits all people. There’s less value and respect for individuality.
There have been numerous conversations about how the internet had changed our spending habits, but what we rarely think about is the way this is tearing at the social fabric of our society.
Certainly, none of us are immune to the increasing rise of costs in a time of inflation. There are more things to pay for today than when the show Cheers first aired.
But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned better late than never from watching the show Cheers (yes, I just started thirty years too late), it’s that there is value in supporting places and people who know you.
It’s not just bars. It’s synagogues, politicians, local hardware stores, and the like. We should all want to be part of a place where everybody knows our names.
Shockingly, saying that is a somewhat countercultural move. But then again, we Jews have always been countercultural.
That’s why after thousands of years, people still know our name.
