BEFORE GILLETTE: THE COFFEE OF DESTINY

Coffee has an unfair reputation. It is treated as fuel, ritual, personality test, and occasionally as a substitute for a complete philosophy. One afternoon, while waiting for a cup to cool, I discovered that time becomes philosophical whenever we are prevented from doing something useful.

We wait for permission in the same way we wait for coffee: convinced that a little more patience will improve the experience. Sometimes patience is wise. Sometimes it is simply cold coffee with a respectable explanation. A small beginning arrives as a page, a sentence, a sketch, or a decision. History rarely recognizes the beginning while it is happening. The moment disappears. The consequence remains. That is the coffee’s final professional opinion about eternity.

Eternity does not begin when time becomes endless. It begins when a decision, a page, or a work refuses to expire.