The Holy Grail of Coffee

The cup of coffee became one with the universe…I don’t know how else to explain it except that it well…never gave up and certainly never surrendered (sorry—there’s a personal joke in there).

It was a day like any other day. There I was, minding my own business killing some time between classes, walking along in the mall sipping on a freshly purchased cup of coffee. It’s what I do—drink way too much coffee—but we’re working on one addiction at a time (42 days nicotine free I might add).

Anyway as I was saying, there I was walking along when suddenly this huge earthquake struck the state of Virginia…well maybe not the state but at least the city of Norfolk. Well maybe it was more localized then that and just the mall itself. Okay…okay so maybe it was just the area I was standing in. Oh—forget it, I was just clumsy and dropped my cup of coffee. But that was when things got weird.

Everything came to me in slow motion as I watched the cup of coffee (my precious—my precious) make its way toward the highly polished floor. This is going to be messy I thought and I will probably be splattered with coffee all over my pants—won’t that make for interesting conversation with my highly motivated students. But alas…that did not happen.

That cup of coffee landed on its bottom in a perfectly upright position. The lid came flying off and the coffee erupted from it in typical geyser-like fashion—a straight up torrent of hot liquid. This is where I get nailed with scorching hot coffee I think—but that was not the case.

Apparently the moon aligned with Jupiter or the Earth was in some form of spatial agreement with something, but about 9/10 of the coffee...are you ready for this...returned to that perfectly upright cup on the floor. Yes…you heard me correctly. Not even I am that crazy to make something like this up. Now if I said that the ostrich appeared and did something to make that happen—then you can call me crazy. But this time—there was no ostrich.

About 1/10 of the coffee, an ounce or two at the most, went elsewhere, I think I ended up with about three drops on me. I stared in fascination at that cup of coffee sitting on the floor. Perhaps not in fascination but maybe more in awe, I bent down and picked up that cup of precious liquid, (think in terms of the Holy Grail made out of a Starbucks paper cup) and raised it to my lips and drank from its glory in the hope that whatever spiritual or physical qualities it possessed would get passed on.

It tasted like a cup of coffee—but I guess they have to make things taste like normal stuff so that we think it hasn’t changed us or anything. Yet, the entire world appears differently to me now. There is a symmetry that holds the molecules of everything together and even the fabric of life itself. Now don’t be jealous—not everyone can have this type of fortune literally dumped in front of them. It’s just the way it is.

I guess there are those of us who were meant for greater things—or perhaps the chosen few is another way to look at it. Some get their start by seeing something in the sky or even in the landscape around us. For me, it just began with a cup of coffee.

Next time it will be a double cappuccino for me.