International Friends Are The Cream In My Coffee

Morning Sun, Winter©2010 Lora Fisher Photography 

Woke up this morning under the impression that today was my birthday.
Since it’s actually tomorrow, that assumption would be wrong. 

Bonus: I get to feel special two days in a row.

It didn't help that friends on the other side of the planet were wishing me a happy birthday on Facebook. That kept the illusion going for a couple of hours, despite having a calendar 18 inches from my nose.

In spite of the confusion that the international dateline can cause, international friendships are the cream in my coffee and provide opportunities to peek into other creative cultures. Australia and New Zealand seem to be the most common, but several Brits and Scots, as well as Dutch, French, German, and Scandinavian friendships have also budded.

Thanks especially to Google Translate, my new favorite app, I've impressed people in Russia and Czechoslovakia this past week. (I unfailingly admit it to my international friends.)  

Living a creative life rarely leads to following rigid schedules or regular hours, and I often find myself looking around at 3:00 am, noting that I've done it again. 

This is where I lay the blame for my occasional scatter-brained mornings and confusion about the date. It's both a blessing and a curse; I'm happy and sad to say. And, it's one of the reasons why I love coffee.

45° North, Western HemisphereLora Fisher  

The Culture of Coffee: 

A Short History

The mythology and culture of coffee began in the bazaars of Turkey and the front stoops of Yemen, and quickly spread throughout the Middle East, into Europe via Vienna, and to the English colonies in the 1600s.

An Ethiopian goatherd is credited with the discovery of coffee's stimulant effects, thanks to an especially frisky goat that piqued his curiosity. Romantic and unverifiable, the story is fits a subject steeped in mythology. Coffee drinking had to start somewhere, and since all civilization begins in Africa, it seems right that coffee drinking should begin there, too.

Leaping forward into the 1600s, coffeehouses became centers of commerce, intrigue, hobnobbing, and rabble-rousing. The open atmosphere of these gathering places played a significant role in leveling the extremes of social stratification prevalent at the time.  

The coffeehouse, then as now, nurtured the appreciation of other addictive pleasures, such as sugar, tobacco, and chocolate. All became highly lucrative trade items for the Europeans, at the expense of indigenous populations of the New World and Africa.  

The development of European coffeehouses as gathering places for people of all classes is credited with being the source of the French Enlightenment, as well as the French and American Revolutions. No longer drinking themselves into stupors from nonstop consumption of fermented grains and fruits, the only safe liquids to drink in those particular good old days, they needed something to do with their excess mental energies.  

Not to be overlooked in this short essay on coffee are the coffee-loving Italians, who gave us espresso and coffee houses in Greenwich Village and San Francisco's North Beach, which spawned the still-influential Beat Generation. This revolution in thought moved up the western flank of the U.S. to Portland and Seattle, seats of the Pacific Northwest's counterculture of the 60s. 

Our contemporary reputation for great coffee and avid coffee drinkers is well known. Portland, as many may remember, had a thriving coffeehouse, folk music, and visual arts scene in the 50s and 60s. Too young for most of it, I recall longing to be part of it as an adolescent and have vivid recollections of its effects on American culture: folk music, Zen meditation, Jazz, obscure free-form poetry, Abstract Expressionism, and funky jug bands. 

Today, aside from a few wildly independent purveyors of caffeine and culture that Portland is home to, we're stuck with the non-culture of a certain nameless coffee chain on nearly every corner. Pity. These rare, independent roasters are the antidote to the numbing conformity that is served in every steaming paper cup.

No matter where or how you get your morning jolt, a moment of reflection and a touch of gratitude will sweeten the bitter and addictive brew.

  

Yew Glow ©2010 Lora Fisher Photography

Not About Coffee ... 

I’m looking forward to the time when the arts turn around and promote me.

Many creative entrepreneurs are stuck in this current economic trench and are understandably anxious about looking over the edge to see what opportunities can be created. 

The good news: A couple of new opportunities are peaking over the horizon. Pun intended: I’m all a-twitter. 

Looking forward to seeing what develops and will post the good news here, there, and just about everywhere.