AS Geri Dietz, St. Cloud, MN
Recently I read an article that made me think of me, of us, of our world. The article starts with a reflection on a single-serve coffee dispenser [of all things to reflect on]! The article is entitled, Grace and a Cup of Coffee, by Charity Vogel and is from Franciscan Media. Here are some of her reflections:
“It has occurred to me lately that maybe the single-serve coffee dispenser is what is wrong with us these days. OK, maybe that’s overstating matters a bit. Still, I’m starting to wonder: do those little single-serve coffee capsules signify something going awry in the American spirit, a push toward individual wants and desires over the good of the larger community?
Recently I’ve been thinking that these single-serve coffeemakers are not so much kitchen appliances as they are just one more sign of the self-centering of the average American.
After all, what many of us seem to want most these days is instantaneous gratification. For movies, there’s On Demand. For Internet connections, there’s broadband and high speed. For merchandise, millions of us Google and Amazon our way to ordering and expect our haul to be delivered within a day or two.
No surprise then that when it comes to coffee time, there’s a growing need for custom-tailoring to our own individual wants and desires. French vanilla? Decaf? House blend? Colombian? You make your choice. I will make mine…And so, rather than share a full pot with our family members and friends—all managing to agree on a brew and flavor, as our grandparents did and their grandparents before them—we serve our own self-interest as we sip our own personal cup. I wish this was the only sign of this sort of burgeoning self-focus of the American consumer. But it’s not.
How much of a surprise would it be, then, if people who make their own single-brew cups of coffee each morning, before reading newspapers on their own private iPads, lose something of the ability to live with others, not merely among them? That might not be the worry that keeps everybody awake at night, but it has given me pause.
There is something special in a shared moment—[like] sipping coffee made in a pot that everybody gathers around. It is something that can’t be found in our heedless pursuit of the single-serve, only-for-me size. You might call it sociability or hospitality. I’d call it something else—something closer to grace.”
I’m not even a coffee drinker; but I hear her musings. I remember when all the kids in the neighborhood would drink from Dixie Cups, and relish whatever flavored Kool-Aid drink came out of the pitcher from someone’s mom who made it. Now, instead each child has their own individualized flavored juice box. I know, I know…now it is more sanitary. Not having so many things to share can be good; but, perhaps it costs more than we know when it comes to building our relationships with one another. Anyway, this article just made me pause for a moment, that’s all. What about you?
