Where Everybody Knows Your Name

The camera pans from left to right down a busy city street and settles upon an inviting first-story establishment on a corner. The windows and stairway leading to the front door are adorned with orange and white awnings and the sidewalk is lined with classy lampposts and a large American flag hangs fluttering in the breeze from the second story. The modern scene then morphs to a late 19th century era where the cars turn to horse-drawn carriages and the men that line the streets are dressed in classy suits with top hats and canes. A piano plays simple notes in a familiar tune: "Making your way in the world today, takes everything you got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away?" The music then builds and everybody joins in: "Sometimes you want go, where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same, You wanna be where everybody knows your name."

This is, of course, the opening jingle for the hugely popular sitcom "Cheers" which ran for 11 season from 1982 to 1993. The show was hugely popular earning some 28 Emmy Awards and a then-record 117 nominations. The show was successfully syndicated world-wide and in 2002 TV Guide name the show 18th on its list of the 50 greatest TV shows of all time.

So what's all the hype? Why is this show about a bunch of regulars at a Boston Bar such a hit? The opening jingle melodically draws one into the show with an almost "Leave It to Beaver," home-cookin' and apple pie tagline. What is it about this show that grabbed America for so many years? Could it be the bucket loads of huge stars that came through the doors like Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, and Kirstie Alley? Was it the amazing acting? Or was it something a little more visceral? Did it grab at something deep down in each of us?

The answer to this came in a most unusual way for me. I recently returned from a grand two-week tour of three states with some of the most breath-taking and picturesque beauty anyone has ever seen. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. It was actually Eastern Pennsylvania, Western South Dakota, and North Eastern Wyoming...in January! Not exactly to most picturesque time of the year in any of those states! Not to mention the temperatures were in the minus 150 degrees range with light breezes gusting to 50mph! It is what folks in Wyoming call "a bit chilly." I remind you that I hail from this frozen wonderland that is somewhere between the frozen peas and frostbitten Neapolitan ice cream in the deep freeze! But, I digress.

As I was saying before my journey down adjective lane, the answer to the question regarding the draw of Cheers came in an unusual way. I visited my Grandparents on the Krause side of the family first, in Allentown, Pa. My Gramps, now 82, can barely get around because of several hip replacements, knee and back troubles, and a nasty case of congestive heart failure. His aluminum walker now accompanies him everywhere. My first day there he and my dad took me down the street a mile or so to a local diner called the "Top Diner." There was nothing really too remarkable about this place other than its uncanny resemblance to "Mel's Diner," complete with a red-haired waitress with a bee-hive hairdo that I was sure was going to be named "Flo!" Certainly, nothing that I could see gave me a reason for the diner's lofty name: "Top Diner."

We sat down in the moderately clean, overly busy eating establishment and this is when I began to experience what it meant to go to a place "where everybody knows your name...," literally! As we ate our omelets and breakfast potatoes there came one by one past our table the Top Diner's version of Norm and Cliff... From the waitress who called my Gramps "Bunky" to the dozen or so people standing in the isle next to our table waiting to pay who one by one said "How ya doing Bunky?" It seemed as though everyone in the place with the possible exception of the bus boy knew my grandpa like he was their grandfather! Then, as we got up to pay...you guessed it, the bus boy came by and he too was a baptized, card-carrying member of the "Bunky" fan club!

This was not a scene I was used to seeing...ever seeing, at any time in my life! I am used to ordering a fat burger from Applebee’s and being lucky if I can get the people sitting around me to make eye contact much less come by my booth and greet me with a special nick name. Most people who make eye contact with you causes you to wonder if they might later stand up to reveal a short sleeved white dress shirt and tie with a name tag that says: Latter Day Saints: Elder Zedekia. Then the secret came out. No doubt as my dad saw the look of amazement on my face at what I was witnessing. My Gramps has come to this same diner in his neighborhood for 50 or 60 years. Apparently, after 50 years you start counting in decades rather than years. He has outlasted 4 owners and certainly the current decor. The waitress, who I was sure carried the name "Flo," had been there 26 years! Now that was simply amazing to me!

I was literally experiencing firsthand what the cheers jingle made us all believe was possible. I was watching literally everyone who passed by my gramps call him by his nickname "Bunky." A week later I found something almost as amazing when I popped into Rapid City, South Dakota to visit with my grandparents on mom's side, the Wipfs. They are regulars in a restaurant called the "Millstone" and the waitresses and manager greet them by name when they come in and have my grandma's favorite slice of pie ready for her. Amazing!

This phenomenon so captured me that it has been percolating in my spirit since coming home three weeks ago. This "cheers" phenomenon is no mystery really. It is a need that is built into each of us for acceptance and love. We were created to be social and interactive with others. We were born with a deep need for connection and to be fulfilled by closeness with others. This is most clearly seen in marriage relationships. There is a deep sense of longing for companionship that we are "hard-wired" for from the time we were born. The scriptures speak of this very early on when God created Adam and then said: "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

Over and over again in the New Testament we find a term that describes this deep need in each of us to be with other people and to love and feel loved. The phrase is "one another." The bible gives gobs of examples of what it means to "one another":

• Wash one another’s feet—John 13:14.
• Love one another—John 13:3; 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8; I Peter 1:22; I John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11.
• In honor preferring one another—Romans 12:10.
• Don’t judge one another—Romans 14:13.
• Receive one another—Romans 15:7.
• Greet one another—I Cor. 16:20, II Cor. 13:12, I Peter 5:14.
• Serve one another—Gal. 5:13.
• Don’t provoke one another or envy one another—Gal. 5:26.
• Bear one another’s burdens—Gal. 6:2.
• Forgive one another—Eph. 4:32, Col. 3:13.
• Teach and admonish one another with song—Col. 3:16.
• Comfort one another—I Thess. 4:18.
• Edify one another—I Thess. 5:11.
• Exhort one another— Heb. 3:13; 10:25.
• Consider one another—Heb. 10:24

Apparently, there are a whole lot of reason to be with others. The world has the deep need for love and acceptance that plays out in all the wrong ways. The deep need for acceptance and love drives people to harmful relationships, dangerous habits, and destructive behavior. Cheers very clearly illustrates the human need for acceptance that we all have inside. Sadly, the Norms and Cliff's of the world will search for a lifetime and never fully find what they're looking for until they settle of Christ. Augustine once said: "Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee." 

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name...Perhaps we should run to the only One who truly knows our name and every detail of our lives. Jesus is the only one who can truly satisfy the deep longing we have inside us. Jesus said the woman at the well: "Whoever drinks this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks the water that I give will never thirst again." John 4:13-14

God's best!

Ryan Krause