Starbucks blogging

  • Boy HOWDY, it’s cold. I think the offi­cial Bank Sign temp is in the 20′s, but there’s a 30 mph wind that is mak­ing it feel a lot colder than that. Plus the wind has old snow­drifts gust­ing around so you feel like you should see cari­bou come gal­lop­ing by. Or even sail­ing by, if they’re small caribou.

    Good time to be in a Starbucks.

    And as I behold the arc­tic out­doors and sip my cafe au lait (ahhhh…), I have the same debate I always have as the Lenten fast approaches. It goes some­thing like this:

    1. Boy, I’ll miss this when I can’t drink milk.
    2. Well, what the heck. If I have them make it with soy milk, it won’t taste that different.
    3. Hey, wait a minute, Phar­isee Queen. Just mak­ing a few adjust­ments like that with­out really chang­ing any­thing vio­lates the spirit of the fast even if it keeps the let­ter. Are you going to strain a gant and swal­low a camel?
    4. A “gant”? You mean a gnat?
    5. Yes, a gnat. Sorry, my lap­top typ­ing skills aren’t highly developed.
    6. Well, I can’t swal­low a camel dur­ing Lent. That’s def­i­nitely off the table.
    7. That’s not even funny. You’re dodg­ing the issue.
    8. All right, look. If you’re going to start adding addi­tional stric­tures on that the Church doesn’t pre­scribe (no cof­fee? or, what, no “designer” cof­fee? So you’ll just drink Taster’s Choice or some­thing? Ooo, tres, tres ascetic!), you’ll just be mak­ing up extra rules for the sake of rules. And you’ll open your­self up to spir­i­tual pride. (“Look at that sin­ner over there drink­ing cof­fee after church when I’m being holy! What a nerve.”)
    9. Spend­ing this much time think­ing about a cup of cof­fee one way or the other is still cen­ter­ing your­self around food. Have it or don’t have it, but don’t make such a big thing out of it.
    10. Right.
    11. Exactly.
    12. So … what was the ques­tion again?
    13. I for­got too. Make the next one a latte.

    Or some­thing like that.


    Related posts:

    1. Hey, blog­ging opportunities!
    2. The dog, the band and blogging
    3. Wacky mayor update
    4. The No-Dang-Good Jesse James Revue
    5. Sun­day after­noon and a feast about a robe

    February 16th, 2007 | Grace | 5 Comments |

5 Responses and Counting...

  • E Rica 02.16.2007

    I under­stand. I’m a Phar­isee Erica all of the time dur­ing Lent. “OH yes gua­camole doritos…they taste just like cheesy dori­tos.” Umm…wait?

    Funny.

  • Cather­ine K.

    I think this is a very human ten­dency. I don’t think there is any­thing wrong with deter­min­ing what we eat (or drink) is as sim­ple as pos­si­ble — but as only applies to ourself.

    For exam­ple, I am a tea snob. I freely admit it, and to fight this ten­dency in myself it is my prac­tice to NOT buy my fancy high-grade imported Oolong loose leaf tea dur­ing Lent. This is just to fight some­thing in myself — and I still drink tea — just not the fancy expen­sive stuff. It doesn’t make me some­how “bet­ter” from those who DO drink fine teas dur­ing Lent — it sim­ply addresses a weak­ness that is in me and I do not assume that every­one else has the same weakness.

    At least this is my per­spec­tive, it’s my story and I’m stick­ing to it :) Thank­fully my spir­i­tual father agrees.

    It seems the Phar­isee line is crossed when we start pay­ing atten­tion at what oth­ers do — but per­haps I am miss­ing some­thing here.

  • Grace

    No, I think you’ve got it right exactly. How many times have we heard that the fast is not just dietary restric­tions — it’s what we DO, how we take the stric­tures and whether we allow them to make us bet­ter or worse. I came up with a guide­line years ago that I try to employ: I should push myself to do as much as I can, and yet if I saw my brother or sis­ter hav­ing cheese or wine or oil, I wouldn’t feel a moment’s judg­men­tal­ness toward them. I have known peo­ple that were great at the first part but just could not keep from being offended at those that weren’t fast­ing to their satisfaction.

  • Cather­ine K.

    That is really how we are called to approach this, but avoid­ing judg­ing in this depart­ment is some­times quite the chal­lenge, which is quite hum­bling. It speaks to that part of us that needs heal­ing, which the tools of Lent are given to us to help address. So we keep try­ing, and just keep get­ting up when we slip.

    So may we all begin the Fast well, and I will go back to ignor­ing the urge to go to my favorite tea site and order­ing some good teas. Of course it would only be for Pascha! (yeah, right)

  • Grace

    LOL. I totally under­stand about the tea thing. I’ve recently learned to drink cof­fee (hence the Star­bucks addic­tion), but tea is really the orig­i­nal “ahhhh” bev­er­age. And so I’ve found that not putting milk in my tea is a lit­tle Lenten obser­vance that is more of a daily reminder than a lot of other more strin­gent require­ments. It’s a lit­tle bit­ter with­out it, but that serves as a good thing. Now I’m try­ing to dimin­ish how much sweet­ener I put in — same concept.

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