OneTrueSentence – I have found that coffee is a great drink to build friendships around, including new friendships when least expected.
That sentence I wrote today reflects a lesson that I have been learning over the last several years as I travel to many coffee shops across America, and even in Europe. Honestly though, I can say the same for books. So, today I want to highlight a book that I read a few years ago and still return to it and review some of its pages periodically. Yes, for some it can seem a boring, or even a pretentious, topic. However, reading it allows one to see how something that seems so ubiquitous, became… well so ubiquitous. Starting with coffee’s Ethiopian, or Yemen roots; (doesn’t history always have its various interpretations?) … to the growth of the market via “waves” of innovation and consumer demands, you can relax and learn to appreciate how a “bean” has used us to improve and grow its presence on the Earth.
However, today I focus on one “sentence” from this book to invite us to reach into and consider its culture changing opportunity. Originally, coffee made its way into Europe, and its developing coffee houses, via émigrés from the Ottoman Empire. The growth of coffee houses prevailed as an “….alcohol-free venue for socializing in which customers were treated as equals’’. (OK… so I guess it’s just a partial sentence)
Alcohol is a depressant… caffeine is a stimulate…. And nobody needs to know if your drinking decaf! This should lead us to desire to engage in thoughtful, and somewhat productive conversations; IF, that is what we would desire. To listen and seek to understand other’s viewpoints and interpretations. But that is not the primary statement in that “fragment” of a sentence I referenced from this book. What I was drawn to, was the “were treated as equals”. Well, why not?
I have found coffee shops to be great gathering spots where communities can gather and enjoy the interactions between one another. I continue to find that engaging individuals in coffee shops, from the baristas to patrons in proximity, can lead to meaningful conversations that can be energizing for all. These interactions can be in the form of a simple, “Good morning” to sharing some noticeable common trait.
Just maybe, coffee could be a medium for unity; at least for the estimated one billion coffee drinkers anyway…