Coffee & caring in times of crisis
A little tale of a man whose craft uplifted my wife, a Norwegian town, and showed us all the way to becoming united and unbreakable.
Yesterday, I took my wife Michelle to a small coffee shop in a nearby town.
We are in Norway caring for my mother, and a bakery which just opened turned out to be a massive letdown. Michelle was disappointed.
My wife is the kind of person who doesn't need a lot to be happy, but after being fulltime with my mom, who is nearing the end of the road, I knew a premium coffee or a nice croissant would make her day.
So yesterday, I decided to take my little family to a nearby town by the oceanfront, on a quest to find some pleasure.
We found a small coffee shop on the outskirts of the town run by a man with a passion for ethically farmed, organic coffee.
His commitment to quality and the working conditions of his suppliers was on full display. He doesn't use milk from cows with Bovaer added to their feed, and all his products are 100% organic, and clearly made with love.
As Michelle was enjoying the first sip of her cappuccino and first bites of her pastry, I looked over at her and asked "as good as back home?"
She looked at me and smiled. "No, better".
As her spirits lifted, I saw that this little coffee shop, run by just one man with a love for his craft and a passion for excellence, brightened my wife's day immeasurably.
Though more than that, I saw how this one man had lifted the whole town.
People were happy in that little cafe, and a whole town had been transformed into a place where true delight is now available.
Isn't that incredible?
In my estimation, most people don't care enough.
And to be a bright soul like Michelle in a crowd of people who don't care can be hard to deal with.
Yet this man cared, and it lit up our day, and I think we can all do that for each other.
I say this with the backdrop that Norway narrowly avoided passing fascist legislation through parliament on Thursday.
Norway's government was about to receive dictatorial powers—including the freedom to forcefully relocate people geographically and force them into doing work the government deems more important than what they are currently doing—but the people rebelled.
A leading law professor went on primetime TV saying "this is in principle the same law that gave Hitler control over Germany", and a lot of people started to wake up to the real world this week.
Similar things are undoubtedly happening in your home country right now, and so in a time when governments are relentlessly committed to the total destruction of our way of life, it strikes me as more important than ever for us to find ways of caring for each other.
As the powers that be conspire to rob us of our last freedoms, we must do whatever we can to brighten each other's worlds, as that makes us stronger.
With enough people doing that, it will make us Unbreakable.
So, for today, let us remember that we can all be the person that makes life worth living for somebody else, simply by showing that there are people who care, and who want to make a positive contribution to the world.
The ability to do so is a sacred gift given to us by God, and the willingness to do so is our sacred gift to each other.
And if ever you go to the quaint town of Drøbak in Norway, the place is called Su Casa, and the owner is Carlos Amortegui, a Colombian man who will brighten your day with the excellence he is committed to.