Reality Bites

Life lesson number one, “life isn’t fair” is followed closely by life lesson number two, “people aren’t good--and neither am a I”.

This isn’t just cynicism or the result of a bad morning without caffein. This is unfortunately Reality 101 and I was reminded today how few of us “get it” and how badly we need to.

Coffee Mate

For some, coffee is a status symbol carried in a cardboard cup; proficiency measured by a mastery of syllables, seasonal specials and purchased with plastic. These commercial coffees with their chain-store baristas and bustling public leave me feeling short-changed. Coffee isn't commercial--it is relational.

My relationship with coffee began in a farmhouse kitchen.  Mornings on my grandparent's farm started with the pungent scent of scalded coffee beans intermixed with a spicy sausage gravy and my grandmother's homemade biscuits. But it was the coffee--dark, black and bitter--endlessly poured from the stained glass belly of an old Mr. Coffee that kept us lingering the linoleum table long after the dishes were cleared and which kept us returning to the table and each other throughout the day.