I found out that Jupiter House offers coffee for the exact price of
One (1) US Dollar.
It reminds me of two (2) things: 1) The commercial where a guy is fishing with his buddy, finds a dollar floating in the pond, and doesn't bother to pick it up until his friend says that he can buy lots of stuff with a dollar - especially for whatever it was they were advertising for (phones maybe?) 2) Dollar coins.
So the next day at work, I made a withdraw from my account for five (5) dollar coins. (Oh, Susan B. Anthony, how good you look in silver). The fact of the matter is, dollar coins are a lot of fun to use, but I'm not sure they've ever found practicality here in the States. Europe has one (1) Euro coins, Mexico one (1) Pesos, Guatemala one (1) Quetzales, and they all use them. Maybe it was the minting of the impractically huge Eisenhower dollar coin that killed anyone's desire to use ever again.
I went up to Jupiter House tonight, found the best table to study at, and hammered away at linguistics homework. I say I hammered away at it. Truth be known, I'm having the darnedest time focusing on the things that I want to retain - mostly notably, school. (Other affected areas: counting back cash, small talk). It's like I want to be doing something else, something that matters. I want all pressure, burdens, Deadlines! to be off me. I want to breathe again. I feel rushed.
What is that about our culture, this incessant need to go-go-go? You ever feel like you're in some sort of time-trial, a rush to get there, but you really can't describe what that "there" is? I guess it can be hard to notice until you go without cell reception, away from facebook, out of your car for days at at a time, and be somewhere without music perpetually bombarding you ears. hmmmmm. Image that, being unplugged from the instant for just a moment and having to be.
I think that I long for the slow, for the impractical, being inefficient for the sake of the process. Some people might then call me a romantic, an idealist, an aesthete, or whatever that word is that I'm looking for. I really don't think I am. I just think we have become masters of watching life fly by and I'm not sure I want to do that. I think 1/2 (one-half) of life occurs in the interruptions and in the silence: where you aren't to busy to be reminded of what's on the other side of your eyes, and where you can be still enough to hear what your spirit and soul have been screaming.
Maybe even what the Spirit of Truth is saying.
(If we believe in that mystic stuff anymore.)
I got up from my studies/anxieties and took a quick walk around the courthouse. It was justifiable cause walks are good for me and it would only be a short one. We had been hit with some storms in the days before, but instead of lowering the temperature like the last storms had done, it seemed to raise it for a day or two (2). But tonight, a brisk breeze blew at a slightly cooler degree than the unagitated air outside. It was perfect. Upon rounding the courthouse, I decided to climb the stairs a little ways and just sit in the breeze for a while.
I'd love to say that my heart slowed down enough till it was perfectly content. It didn't. But it did slow some. And I saw some of the world around me. I sat there and thanked God for such a moment and tried to maintain an attitude of prayer - for my own heart, non-believers, and Denton to know and love and seek Truth.
(Do we believe in that stuff anymore?)
Sometimes it's the little things that remind me of my humanity. Paying with the impractical dollar coin, sitting in the wind, and stopping before bed to write a blog by dual (2) candle light has all done the trick (or at least helped).
For the Record: Coconut coffee = good idea.
