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by Kris
This came to me after reading these blog posts:
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/20438/my-purpose-joining-big-closet
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/20454/could-i-be-loved-be-considered-beautiful
© 2010
In my town, there was a coffee shop. Not one of the modern St*rbucks-type places, but a real old local coffee hangout. The woman who ran it, Erin, imported varieties of beans from all over the world, and roasted and ground them in the shop. Sometimes the neighbors complained when she over-roasted a dark roast, but she mollified them with a bag of (not over-roasted!) coffee, and some chocolates (did I mention she also made and sold chocolates?).
The patrons were a varied bunch, college students, local shop workers, old hippies, and people who came from considerable distances to visit the shop and drink and buy custom roast blends to take home to savor. These were people who knew and enjoyed their coffee. They chatted about the merits of different blends, roasting techniques, growing regions, and fair-trade practices. They not only drank coffee, but they celebrated coffee in songs, recited poetry about coffee, and wrote stories about real and imagined coffee drinkers and experiences.
One night Jess came into the shop and sat at the counter drinking a glass of ice water and talked to Erin and some other patrons about how he was trying to not drink coffee. He said he had urges to drink, and had sometimes given in, but now he really was trying not to drink coffee. He explained how the coffee drinkers that had sometimes imbibed with him didn't understand him, now that he was trying to quit. Other folks that he knew who didn't drink coffee couldn't understand these urges he had and how he was trying to resist them.
He wondered if this was a place where he could be understood? The patrons here seemed so nice and friendly, and since they drank coffee, surely some of them must understand his desire to not drink?
Erin thought for a while.
I'm sure, she said, that many of the people here have tried to give up drinking coffee, some many times. Some were told by parents, friends, or SOs that they drank too much coffee and should stop. Others were told by religious leaders that coffee drinking was a sin and they must stop or be damned. Others were told by doctors that they should quit, or at least cut back, for their health.
But what you need to understand, is that the patrons here have come to terms with their coffee drinking. Some drink a lot, some just a little. Some hang out here all day, others just stop by now and then. They all have accepted coffee drinking, in what ever way they practice it, as part of their nature.
The patrons here won't think any less of you because you're trying to not drink coffee. They know you can still be loved, and be a beautiful person inside, whether you drink coffee or not. You're still welcome to come in and drink water, as long as you don't mind them. They'll continue to drink coffee, to write about it, sing about it, and rhyme about it.
Now if you're serious about not drinking coffee, this might not be the best place to get help. Perhaps you should talk to a therapist who has experience with people with drinking issues of all sorts.
Smiling, she said, "Perhaps you would be happier at the bar down the street?"
The End
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Comments
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Does the coffee shop have beans from the Nile region? It's a river, in Egypt ....
Amy!
An interestimg take
on the subject.
I used to drink the occasional coffee, and got upset that I had to do it in secret and so infrequently. Then I had to make a decision; it upset some people but ....
"Coffee is for life; not just for Christmas."
Susie
make mine
A long medium roast cappuccino with a pinch of cinnamon and a sprinkle of grated dark choccy. Decadent? Hedonistic? Indulgent? Hey, I like what I like... let them drink cocoa. Or soya bean slim mocha, or a low fat latte... the coffee drinkers lettuce leaf, pah. If I'm gonna drink coffee, I want the real thing.... pass the sugar lovee.
Kris (the other one)
Mmm...a rich, dark, French roast Please
[email protected] And keep 'em coming! I'm just not myself while decaffienated!
Nice job Kris.
Thanks,
Jonelle
Oh, could I have a blueberry muffin too? They look yummy!
[email protected]
I love coffee....a lot!
...I have a problem. Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that I love coffee; I was under the impression for the longest time that I was a tea drinker, and I don't mind tea once and a while. My problem is that my dear love believes that I gave up coffee a long time ago. I'm going to have to drink my coffee alone when I have the time or have my coffee with my friends here, since she'd really be upset if I drank it in front of her. Oh, we'll share our tea times as we always have and we'll enjoy those times together. I really wish I could drink coffee at home and share those times with her as well. *sigh*
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Posers
I love everything about coffee and everyone who drinks it. Well . . . not everyone, of course. Those who are uncommitted really bug me. I'm sure you know what I mean. They're the ones who act so decadent by drinking exotic blends when they're unwilling to go through what I have to make a lifetime commitment. It's like all those other caffeine drinkers in the caffeine rainbow coalition. Every time it gets down to brass tacks in demanding our rights, the Red Bull crowd and the cola-slurpers throw us under the bus. They don't care beans about our issues.
Anyway -- I digress. My point is, there should be cafes for cross-drinkers who "just" dabble in all things coffee -- don't you agree? I'm sure you do because it only makes sense and you seem like such a nice person. That way we wouldn't have to be seen with them, don't you see? Wouldn't that be nice?
Anyway II -- I love this cafe and everything Erin has done to help us. I especially love all the coffee cups and t-shirts with the motto "I'm Blending-In; So You Really Don't Know - Do You?". I use my cup all the time at home and no one has any idea that I'm Mochaed. Those of us who truly are committed can easily go through life without anyone realizing we're Mochaed which makes us vastly superior to those who. . . . Well, I'm sure YOU understand.
Oh crap! Another cross-drinker freak just came in. I hope I can keep down that raspberry scone I just ate.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
yep , all good
Just so long as no one comes in and tries to order a Sprite...pass the fire axe. Pineapple muffin?
Kris
Oops!
I'm a serial tea drinker - bog standard, Earl Grey, Lady Grey even the odd green tea and just occasionally, a herbal one. Why are you all looking at me like that?
Angharad
Angharad
Come on Angh!
[email protected] Just take a little sip of this Arabica. It's wonderful! You know you want to!
Evil grin and giggles,
Jonelle
[email protected]
The coffee shop also has a fine selection of teas
Oh Ang, my apologies. I forgot to mention that the coffee shop also has a fine selection of teas for the tea sipping clientèle. The proprietor has observed that the Coffee Drinkers and the Tea Sippers in the shop get along quite well, although she knows that is not always true in the wider world.
Kris
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
The Coffee Shop - A Parable
Me, I like the parable and find the ending quite funny. This Coffee Shop is perfect for all coffee drinkers and their friends.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
I thoroughly enjoy a good cup of coffee
Coming to a coffee shop like the one described above can be a pleasant experience. I just get a little uncomfortable when someone comes in the shop and instead of buying a cup just comes over and stares and me and my girlfriends. Hell...tea, coffee, Diet Mountain Dew, I really don't friggin' care, just buy something or leave, please!
Sigh...
... Now I want a tall cup of mocha, but it's too hot for coffee here, and iced coffee just isn't quite the same thing.
*giggle*
Nicely written!
Cultivated or Snobbish ?
Both Coffee and Tea it could be argued are bad for us, containing Caffein, a mildly addictive stimulant drug. But Wine and Whisky are also argueably bad for you, with their Ethanol content, another, more addictive drug, not a stimulant this time but a soporific and relaxant that releases inhibitions. Tea, if by Tea one means only the stuff made from an infusion of leaves from the Tea bush, actually contains a whole bunch of drugs besides caffein, including Theophyllin, useful for treating asthma, and Tannins, useful for control of the hind gut motility and having a calming efffect, as well as for dyeing cloth and tanning skin to make leather!
All of them, wine, whisky, coffee and tea, are among the Finer Things of Life. They all have infinite variety and range in quality though, with at one end horrible, foul, really revolting concoctions and at the other, drinks that make singers sing, poets write poetry, thinkers create wonderful thoughts and writers write Great Works, even Physicists and Mathematicians discover some of the Secrets of the Universe whilst under their influence!
The important thing is the choice of quality, and the preparation. For Tea, you need to go to Japan to get the full experience of the Tea Ceremony, and it takes some immersion in the local culture to even begin to absorb the full experience. With Coffee there is less of a ceremony but a lot of Additives involved, that have importsnce for some folks. There are two different species of plant, robusta and arabica, which taste different anyway, but then it depends on the roasting, the grinding, and the final preparation. So much can go wrong and Murphey with his Laws is always hanging around and usually gets a hand in it. With Tea it is harder to get it wrong, although plenty of people and places do so. With wine there are a huge range of varieties of berry, variations in collection and fermentation, storage, bottling and maturation - resulting in potions fit for the gods and fluids suitable for flushing the loo with. Whisky is even more complicated and a volume of words would not begin to even describe the subject.
Having supped and sipped with both Princes and Professors, it is hard when one is old and discarded, and living in reduced circumstances, to keep up the standards and to enjoy these Fine Things that are so vital to our civilization and culture. A dear Friend keeps me supplied with Coffee from Switzerland, fine ground, medium roasted aromatic Arabica, vacuum packed in half kilo packs. My Teas also come from there and from one of the better Tea Merchants in England. I enjoy a variety of teas, green and cured, from China, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Elsewhere. White Tea, the unopened flower buds at the very tip of stems, is possibly the most fine and expensive sort. There is a smokey tea from China that is better than any antidepressant. The average tea that is advertised comes in tea bags and contains the sweepings from the floor of the curing rooms and is only fit for monkeys ( see the TV ads with Chimps drinking it!). So I spend more of my pension pittance to enjoy the finer things of life, than I perhaps ought to. They cant Sue me - a naked person has no trouser pockets (this is from a German saying, and is very funny in German!)
I wont even go into the details about wines and whiskys, or you wont have time left to read all the lovely stories!
Bless!
Briar
Briar
On coffee...
I'm a cardiac patient. My doctor absolutely forbids caffeine. So I'm in the hospital, having my pacer checked (usually requiring a 2-3 day stay in observation, "just in case"...) So, what do I find on my tray EVERY SINGLE MEAL? COFFEE. BLACK. STRONG. And LOADED with caffeine... (I asked for decaf, and the nurse said they weren't ALLOWED to serve it -- seems some of the more well-known processes involve using highly toxic solvents. Even pressurized CO2 and the Swiss Water Method are questionable, at best).
Who would have thought?
*Kisses*
Haylee V
*Kisses Always*
Haylee V