On Coffee

 

I'm not one of those people who "needs" coffee. If there is no coffee, I'm fine-- I've gone weeks with no coffee.

However I do like coffee. I especially like the smell of it, that warm aroma. I like to put my hand over the mug and feel the warmth, and to start with a cup of black coffee and then perfect it with a little sugar and a little milk and maybe, sometimes, some vanilla. 

And I like to sit in a ramshackle coffee shop-- yes, I prefer ramshackle over "clean" or "Starbucks"-- and watch the people and pretend to read something as I do so. In Waco, it was wonderful to eavesdrop on students doing group projects, especially the ones who were doing it poorly or with great drama. And the coffee was great.

A friend once told me about a man from Turkey who owned a little store near my friend's house in Chicago. People would come in and get a cup of coffee and run out to drink it in the car and it just enraged the store owner-- he believed that coffee should be enjoyed sitting down with friends. 

And maybe that is the difference between needing coffee and liking it.