CUPPA JOE…

In my continuing battle to capture the small details of life in 92128, I quite naturally find myself ruminating on things a saner person would ignore. Today it was coffee. As a young divinity student I would often spend a rare Saturday off in the city of San Francisco. My high school years occurred, in part, during the Summer of Love. Trips (no pun intended) to the Haight were pretty heady for a sheltered Catholic kid. There was free speech and free love, bread baked in coffee cans by the Diggers, City Lights, free concerts in Golden Gate Park. It was also the year of the BUTTON. Buttons with peace signs and messages were everywhere and I chose one that fit me perfectly. The button did not say Nirvana Now or HELL NO WE WON’T GO. My button simply stated a timeless truth: COFFEE IS GOD. Needless to say this message was frowned upon in the confines of the Seminary, but no truer words were ever etched on a button.

Thomas Jefferson called the humble cup, ” the favorite drink of the civilized world” but my relationship with the brew – like a good Arabica – was a bit darker. My appreciation was existential. Every morning I asked the question, “should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?” This is a direct quote from that troubled French/Algerian, Albert Camus. Deep and dark just like I like it.

Today, as the coffee dripped into existence I decided to do some research. Coffee was first encountered in Ethiopia, then it flows throughout the Arabian Peninsula. The magic elixir entered Europe only after the blessing of Pope Clement VIII who determined that the drink was not the work of the devil. Christians took to coffee like a Catholic takes to dogma and it was only an instant (again, no pun) before the New World was awash.

Today coffee has become a form of magic. I decided to find the longest coffee order ever made at a modern Starbucks and the internet gave me this: “Quad long shot grande. Venti cup half-caf double cupped. No sleeve salted Carmel mocha latte with two pumps of vanilla. Substitute two pumps of white chocolate mocha and two pumps hazelnut. Half whole milking half breve. No whipped cream, extra foam with light Carmel drizzle. One scoop of vanilla bean powder with light ice….well stirred. “

I can see no difference between this order and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It has all the complexity of the Fathers of the Church and the music of the Latin Mass. Perhaps coffee is God after all. As Jonathan Swift said, ” coffee makes us severe, grave and philosophical. ” No different that than a Christian Catechism. I watch the lines forming at the local Peets and Starbucks and the eucharistic aspect of it all is not lost on me.

I feel vindicated. I should not have been punished for wearing a button that was patently true in its message. At least I avoided being burned at the stake…a dark roast indeed.

So enjoy your morning cup…it beats suicide and you may encounter the divine.