I made a post on Instagram earlier today that made me take some time to reflect on life the past few years.
My days off are the only time during the week where I can make a cup of coffee and actually enjoy it. I think that there’s a negative outlook on coffee that people often correlate to “getting us through the grind,” but that might be a post for another day 😂.
But there was something different about this cup of coffee. It sparked this deep love that I had for life when I was working in coffee, for many different reasons. When I was working in coffee, I remember waking up every morning—ready to open the shop and make these people their damn coffee (at the time this was meant in a nice way haha). These past few years, this phrase has become a bit more jaded and has leaned on the end of “these people need their damn coffee.”
So what do I mean by this? It’s very cryptic, right?
Let’s think about these past few years:
Covid, protests, un-lawful murders, quarantine, BLM, inclusion, racism, diversity, the CHAZ, wildfires, earthquakes, WAR, insurrections. These are a few terms that have shaped this part in our history. Although these terms shouldn’t be new and/or surprising to us, it is. Or maybe these should be surprising to us.
What am I getting at? How does my story of making a simple cup of coffee led to something as dark as remembering the pain of these years. I say this because, much like my back-in-the-day, beaming, barista boy time, the days of viewing this world “in light of things” is tougher to see.
Can we not all agree?
I think when the protests first initially started and we had our BLM posters, we all stepped out onto the streets, Instagram posts, and Facebook statuses compelled by what we thought was empathy and justice. And I believe that some of that is actually true but there is something that I think we didn’t expect to lose. Empathy.
How is this possible right? We attacked the pandemic with empathy, so how would we be led to lose what we started with. Well, just think about it. As a byproduct, we have begun to see the lens in “black and white.” Figuratively and literally. Now, don’t get me wrong—I was/am definitely one of those people fueled by the awareness of our actions, but I do believe there has to come a balance with all of this.
So, what are you saying John?
I’m saying I’m tired. I can go on and on of how I was affected or what I saw and how it weighed on me—trust me, it still does today (who doesn’t love therapy right?). I am tired of being upset with people. I’m tired of being mad at people. I’m tired of fighting people and being put down by people.
These past few years of belittled our empathic capabilities with one another and I am guilty of accepting that.
Take a moment and look at this world. We have created beautiful works of art, technology, and resources as a result of creating—together. Our differences is what molded these together to create all of which we enjoy now today. Asian Fusion, Hispanic Heritage month, Scandinavian design and culture, German beer, and so much more.
I’ve rambled so much. Where am I going with this. Why did I write this? Coming back to my barista days.
I want to be the person that would wake up every morning “ready to make your damn coffee.” Basically, to wake up and ready to serve…you and everyone else.
As a barista, or anyone in customer service, we’re tasked to serve anyone and everyone—to interact with those outside of our circle of influence and invite them into realm. So that we can help to leave their days better than when they started it.
In the same way, can we leave the world better than when we were in it?
