A constant throughout my existence has been coffee.

While life is constantly changing, there is always coffee.

In my childhood, my parents drank coffee in the morning. When we lived in Germany, they shared coffee with the neighbors — an American couple sharing a cup of comfort with other friendly people, maybe a language barrier, but a shared language in coffee. When we moved back to the United States and visited my grandmother in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, extended family would stream in and out of her kitchen, sitting for about a half hour of conversation and coffee before getting back on the snowy highway and heading to their next stop.

In my adulthood, I’ve carried on that tradition. In the morning, my wife and I wake with a cup (or many cups) of coffee. When I talk on the phone, I like to have a fresh cup of coffee in my hand.

There’s something special about a cup coffee — when people gather in the mornings, there is coffee. Coffee is a centerpiece for conversation. It’s simultaneously energizing and calming.

Now, I’m inviting you to have coffee with me.

Come have coffee with the editor of your community newspaper, 11 a.m. to noon on Thursday, Nov. 29, at Issaquah Coffee Company (317 NW Gilman Blvd. #46).

Let’s talk about whatever you want to talk about.

You bring the conversation, and we’ll buy the coffee.

I look forward to meeting you.