I am a simple person. I drink coffee black. I don’t like it too hot, but if it’s warm, I won’t drink it. Weird, I know. I refuse to complicate my order at the coffee shop. Medium-sized cup, light roast — that’s what I order. It’s part of a routine cultivated from being over-worked and under-recovered. Most everyone I know does something similar. We all have our thing — a hurried meditation with the self. Even on the days I wake up early and run for miles and miles before the sun comes up, some variation of this routine persists.
That’s OK. I do my best thinking in the morning. With a long commute, I try to learn a thing or two en route to the office and on the way back home.
That’s when the ideas are born.
So, what does this have to do with coffee and ideas?
Ideas are like coffee. When freshly-brewed, its heat and aroma are somewhat intoxicating. Sometimes, we have to let the cup sit for a while before it’s the right temperature. Then we enjoy it. Other times, we dive right in and get burned. And so, we let it sit too long. Before we know it, the cup cools off and we don’t drink it; at least I don’t. It sits and it sits before getting tossed or dumped out.
In either case, there’s a metaphor there about life and a deflated feeling associated with a lack of accomplishment.
