It is my observation that people who live in the suburbs (and to an extent this general rule applies to mid-westerners as well) tend to gravitate toward larger chain restaurants.. cafes... malls..... and of course "trendy" corporate coffee shops with tendencies toward complete world domination.I personally prefer trendy "independent" or locally owned coffee shop's myself, clearly making me more enlightened than the rest.
Alas, because I was in the suburbs and because I was meeting a client who in fact lives and works in the suburbs it was no great surprise that I found myself asking for my simple drip coffee in form of a: "grande".
Under a large green umbrella shielding spring sunshine I sat, sipped and waited for the mysterious antagonist who had forced me to lower my coffee drinking standards. Incidentally, she was seated two tables down and had been for the entirety of my judgment on her "unoriginal" choice of meeting place. Regardless, the point is that while I waited, and judged, and looked busy writing things in my day planner, and making "important" notes on my to-do list... I happened to glance down at my 'grande' coffee cup.
A simple white paper cup, with a familiar logo in green print and a warning about the liability one takes on by consuming hot beverages from a corporation... and on the back was a quote, not from a poet or famous author or political leader or even from a musician who had kicked a drug addiction and now wanted to share his new found views on living the best life he can with the world at large, but from a "coffee enthusiast" named Anne Morris.
First thought: "I am enthusiastic about coffee... who do I talk to about getting something I say printed on a coffee cup"
Second thought: "I really don't have much to say, perhaps they would just like a picture I have taken."
Selfish thoughts aside, I read what was written by Anne Morris.... I liked what was written by Anne Morris. I wondered what Anne had gone through in her life to come to this sort of wisdom? What Anne believes in? Who is Anne?
Honestly, it really doesn't matter, nor does it matter the format to which her voice is heard. What matters is that she believed in what she had to say enough to submit it (or whatever the process is) to a international coffee conglomerate.. it was selected, printed, and read by me... me, who shelved my judgment long enough to became strangely thankful for the opportunity to step outside of my routine.. be sitting someplace I wouldn't normally be sitting... be reading something I wouldn't normally be reading. Its funny, where the things we need to hear, the things that make us stop and think, the things that slap us upside our heads and say... you may go to hip, trendy, overpriced, independently owned, coffee shops, in your hip, trendy, overpriced, downtown neighborhood.. but you do not have it all figured out. Its true. I don't. Wisdom, clarity and what we might need to hear at that exact moment in time can come to us from the most unexpected places.
We just have to be open.
Commit to that "openness".
Get out of our heads, cause we never know where new wisdom will reside.
"The irony of commitment is that it is deeply liberating- in work, in play, in love, the act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life." -
Anne Morris "coffee enthusiast"
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