Third Place-Third Space

Most people would not recognize McDonald's as a third place, nor would they likely know what a third place was. But if they looked back at the far end of the restaurant, they would see a small group of aging men and women clustered around a small table with coffee in hand, in heavy discussion with facial gestures, body movement, and engaging conversations from all. This small group of regulars who patronize this specific location on a regular scheduled basis comprise what has been defined as participants in a Third Place. Third in the sense of home and work being first and second, and third in the sense of regulars who meet openly in a public atmosphere with other regular participants who come and go with freedom and flexibility. This group represents consistency, stability, participation, and a sense of community through their close-nit bonding, common interest, and friendship.
This group also represents Third Space. Third Space is the space where all places are capable of being seen from every angle, a space that is common to all of us, yet never able to be completely seen or understood, a sort of "unimaginable universe" where everything comes together; the real, the imagined, the mind, the body, everyday life. It is the complex totality of potential knowledge and is a thread to the complexities of the modern world achievable only through approximations, a search to move beyond what is known. Third Place is the environment, the atmosphere, the fuel that allows and fosters the permeation of Third Space with the dialogue that brings about through provoking inquiry and questioning and discussing that opens avenues and venues for in-depth conjectures and theory development, that open up doors to other kinds of spaces for discussion, projection, evaluation, and revision. Third Place engenders Third Space by providing a format for discovery, the emphasis to activate and engage the unlimited dimensions of third space, the thirding of both/and also, as Soja would say, in opposition to the lure of binarism with its closed either/or opposition.
Third Space is the playground for mind expaning drugs and hallucinogenic that intellectuals like Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley engaged in, the search for a universal explaination or revelation that accounts for all the mysteries of the world. Drugs were thought to make third spaces more available and the attainment of universal knowledge assessible to those who were chemically induced. The doors of enlightment were partially opened, but the repercussions of closure were dramatic and injurious to the participants.
Third Space is accessible to everyone. It surrounds us and embraces us, but does not reveal itself without inquiry. It is the "other-than choice that speaks to us. It is the "twilight zone" of movie buffs, or the "third dimension" of musical groups and sci-fi groupies. Thirding allows for the continuous expansion of knowledge beyond what is currently known. It is the basis of conjecture, speculation, and creativity. Thirding provides an alternative, and other-than choice that speaks and critiques through its otherness. It is not just an additive, but an alternative that has elements of similarity and also dramatic differences.