Happy Face 18

Gentle Reader, I just pulled this little gem from the Koffee Kult page on the internet, and it seems to fit me almost to a tee, or, pardon the bad pun, please, but this seems to be why I always prefer my coffee dark, black and bitter: "The Purist: Black Coffee Drinker Taking a much more serious look on life, this coffee drinker certainly does not prefer to try different coffee drinks. A typical black coffee drinker is prone to mood swings, but nevertheless, they are the person others can rely on for straight forward answers. Your candid personality balances out those who are much more carefree. You have a sense of humor that can mesh well with others, but do not like to waste time on unnecessary activities." According to Ronnoco. "one might say those who like a bit more drama in their lives—who are drawn to the stronger emotions, perhaps—tend to favor dark roasts." I just pulled some more information about people who like their coffee black and it all seems to square with my personality: we're realists, truthful and have no time for frills or nonsense. We also appreciate the subtle and not so sutle details of real life. We are unadulterated and unpretentious. Friends for life, but don't piss us off. Yes, I know I could have just copied and pasted all of today's post from other sources but then it wouldn't be my own, and like all lovers of black coffee, I prefer to give it to you straight. Coffee is a potent metaphor. When I was younger I used to drown it in cream and sugar, and it was lovely. Somewhere in my later twenties or early thirties, I began to take it black. Always black. I don't know what facilitated the change, but my life was getting very intense and straightforward and I think my preference for black and bitter coffee was a symbol for this. But as I am giving this more thought, I am recalling that at home, I have always had my coffee black and unsweetened, as a rule. Only when I was out did I contaminate it with cream and sugar. Eventually, my life away from home began to conform to my life at home, and to the world I became the person whom I always am while I'm home alone. I am also a faithful and very committed Christian, and according to the secular atheists, I am really indulging in the opiate of the people. If I claim to believe in or,(horrors!) even love God, then I am engaging in a fantasy life, escaping from reality. The psychiatrist I saw for four years, upon learnig about my faith and spiritual experience, diagnosed me behind my back as having a schizotypal personality. I imagine he was an atheist. But not even he could understand, put together or explain how a deeply religious or spritiual person, who claims to have a relationship with God, could possibly be grounded in truth and reality the way I was and still am. But I didn't like my coffee made sweet and pretty, just as I will not have my experience of life made sweet and pretty. Moving into God is moving into truth, and it means facing, embracing and celebrating truth and reality. This doesn't really have a lot to do with doctrine or theology so much, as dedicating one's life to the pursuit and love of truth. I have never experienced cognitive dissonance around this. And this has been anything but a joyless existence. There is somethng so beautiful about the truth, something so whole, right, integral and balanced. I have always loved this wholeness, I have always longed for this balance. Filling your coffee cup with cream sugar and whtever else, you don't even taste the coffee after a while. Putting on a happy face, faking joy is really just the same thing as adding cream and sweetener. It's like going through life medicated. You never get to feel or touch the essential truth of what is happening. I do not find black unsweetened coffee to be bitter, but extremely delicious and sensual. I revel in the many subtle and complex flavours and subtleties, much as I have come to discouver and celebrate joy even in the midst of the darkest and most bitter sorrow. It runs so much deeper than mere happiness, and it provides me with the strength I require every day to move on and actually get something done during the day.