Thank you for expanding my comfort zone and respect for “strangers.” Starbucks has created a space where absolute strangers share tables and electrical outlets and become trusted guardians within minutes (“Hey, can you watch my stuff while I go to the bathroom?”). How did Starbucks know that right here in my city, introverts and extroverts, the troubled and the burden-free, men and women, minorities and majorities, stay-at-home parents and big busy executives, immigrants and fifth-generation Americans and the retired and the newly employed would be willing to sit down all together for hours? How does this happen? I mean, not only in my Starbucks in Baltimore, but also the one on 4th and Seneca in Seattle and the one near the W Hotel in San Francisco on 3rd and Howard? As far as I can tell, it’s because you have created a silent norm that everyone is welcome — and we have, sometimes begrudgingly, agreed. I marvel at the kindness and respect shown to everyone who comes here, especially those who are homeless or down on their luck. And because you said they were okay, we all have had to get with the program. We sit side by side: the banker and the homeless, those with more than enough, those with just enough, and those with very little. Because of our proximity, many of us have learned to inquire after the “strangers” among us — and gradually, we become less strange.