Opus 2024-447: The Problem of Coffee

If you run in Christian circles, you may have heard the problem of sin.  I’m going to submit that  we probably would understand the concept better if we would apply what we do know about the world around us.  I want to suggest that we can gain some understanding from the problem of coffee.

You may be so old that you don’t remember your first taste of coffee.  Remember how wonderful it smelled?  Do you remember that look of gratification that your parents had on their face at your first sip?  Do you remember how you wanted to spit it out the first time you tasted it?  Perhaps you did spit it out.  Remember.

But it kept you awake so you learn to drink it.  You doctored it up with sugar and cream.  You may still do that.  But as your taste buds die, or get used to the taste, you find if there is a certain satisfaction that comes with that first cup of coffee in the morning.  You just let out a big sigh, “Ah…”

You’ve gotten used to it.  Just as you get used to sin in your life.  That doesn’t mean it is any less bitter.  It just means that you have learned to enjoy it and the effects it might have on your day.  I can develop that a little more.  I taught middle school for 29 years.  That was enough time to make some observations.  It didn’t take me long to realize that when kids came into the sixth grade class I taught at one point that they had a basic sense of morality.  They may not have walked the line but they knew it was there.  By the time they made it through grade eight they were already mouthing the politically correct mantras of the educators.  They were not comfortable with it but they saluted it anyway.

Why is coffee bitter?  Coffee is bitter so that you can enjoy the donuts more.  Have you noticed how coffee and donuts just seem to go together naturally.  We think of them as complementing each other but in reality what they are doing is contrasting each other.  You can get the same effect with coffee and an Oreo.  You might get the same effect with limes and your iced tea.  We often appreciate the sweetness of life because we experience the bitterness of life.

Yes, I am getting philosophical.  I remember a program on The Twilight Zone.  It had a robber who has been killed while trying to escape and is taken to a place that he calls Paradise.  He has what he assumes is an angel and named him Fats.  The angel then proceeds to ask him what he wants to do and of course, being a criminal, he wants to go to a gambling casino where he can never lose.  You may remember how it goes but ultimately, because he never loses, the entire sweet experience becomes bitter.

When I walk in the morning and it is cold, the contrast of the brisk, sometimes numbing, cold air on my face with the warmth under my coat and the radiating warmth of my body is what makes it so pleasant.  At the very least, it adds to the enjoyment.  When I step out the door and start down the steps, I’ll look at the sky.  Sometimes it is covered with clouds, with no contrast, just grayish.  How boring.  Or it might be a day where there is not a cloud in the sky, just a uniform canopy of blue.  Again, how boring. But there are those mornings where you have swaths of blue, separated by piled up clouds ranging from white to dark gray being blown across the sky by a strong wind.  How glorious the contrast is.

We need the contrast in life to make it worth living.

I am not sure how this is going to work out in eternity, but it makes me think that there will be challenges for us there.  There will be hills to climb.  They will be mysteries puzzle out and understand.  And that will somehow work together in eternity in a way that does not require sin to be delightful.

I hope I see you there.

homo unius libri