May our drinking be fair and special.
coffeetography
On this annual National Coffee Day my message is akin to how I’ve taken my coffee often: natural, short and unsweetened.
As I reflect on this National Coffee Day, I can only think of last years’ day and what has transpired since then. The world definitely looks different these days, and it is for all the obvious reasons, and for the myriad that we can’t decode.
National Coffee Day is about what we do everyday, drink coffee. This simple, complex habitual act saves us from ourselves, delivers us from our thoughts and reinvigorates us when we need an exterior influence to bring us back to a state of mental, emotional and even social equilibrium.
Drinking coffee is about the beautiful cups of coffee that aren’t always so pretty, and the pretty cups of coffee that don’t always taste as beautiful.
Drinking coffee is to be aware of coffee’s complex issues, from its places of origination, its endangered environmental status and it’s journey to consumers that simply moments of a caffeine fix.
It is to know that all is not fair yet, in coffee and culture, and that systemic issues also affect coffee. It is also knowing that when coffee suffers a crisis from price to race, we, each day with our change, can change the culture for the better.
On this day, my desire is to honor coffee and the places that independently lay down their sweat equity to do the same. Today, go where you would go and go where you wouldn’t. Order what you would drink, order what you wouldn’t. Sip your regular drink and what you wouldn’t. By all means, do what you do but explore what you normally don’t. After all , a celebration is a chance to be with what we love and uncover new things to love about it.
However you celebrate, remember, mindfulness in our individual ritual elevates our collective culture.
When we go high, let’s stay there.