Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

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Wayne Grady. Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

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BREAKFAST AT THE EXIT CAFE

BREAKFAST

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Wayne and I are birdwatchers, observers of nature. We’re inclined to think of humans not as civilized beings but as just another species. When we travel, we look at all the populations—feathered, furred, clothed—with a curious eye.

So, thinking about the kind of people who ended up here, I expect them to be self-reliant and freethinking, something Americans claim as a national birthright. Historically, Americans seem always to be running from home, whether from England or New England, resolutely heading into the setting sun, away from family and tradition, looking for places to survive on their own. But once they arrived here in the Northwest, they became social-minded. Not only did they elect the first woman mayor and erect the first Hispanic college, but this is the home of consumers’ co-ops, mutual aid societies, and publicly owned utilities. Internet cafes, emblems of both real and virtual connectivity, were spawned here. They may have the lowest rate of church attendance and the highest percentage of atheism in the country, but social conscience runs high: three of the ten greenest communities in the United States are part of this I-5 megacity. And the two biggest online magazines devoted to environmental sustainability are produced out of Seattle. Maybe that’s because they still have an environment to save—over half of the land mass of Washington, the Evergreen State, is still covered with forest.

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