Tea, Fire and Boredom
On Tea
I have just returned from a short trip New York City, the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps. And while the city has a kind of restless energy that acts as the dynamo for its cultural development, I found myself continually uncomfortable by the situation. I must concede that I stayed in Manhattan, only a few blocks from Time’s Square, it is one of the most busy areas of the city. However, as a mass concentration of people, the streets are always moving. The lights are always on. The subway is always on schedule. Such a way of living divorces itself from the earth’s daily heartbeat. A day begins not with a feiry eastern renewal. Each day is just like the last. In fact, each day is the last for there is no way to separate the two. We humans live and die based upon the steady beat within our chest. If we lose the beat in the sky, do we not perish in the same way?
My temporary dwelling near the University cannot compare to New York City in terms of population density and movement. By comparisons, the University is but a country hamlet with a few farms and nothing more. However, I still operate upon a clock with delegates 1/3 of my day to the office, 1/3 of my day to sleep and 1/3 of my day to every other endeavor imaginable. As expected, such free time is if great value to me, for it is the time when I eat, bathe and reflect upon the busy happenings of the day. Perhaps there are small islands of so-called freedom among the week’s work. But to live upon an island with no other support is to be stranded. I would rather strap together some planks and take my chances against the ocean’s wrath. For perhaps I will sail to more habitable waters. I have crucified myself upon the moving hands of the clock.
In light of the unnatural comings and goings of the normal day, I feel that it is appropriate to set aside a short portion of my day in reflection of a different perspective to this dominating and rigorously timed regime. A culture of work is most powerful if it can convince you that there is no alternative to the daily toil for a piece of bread and extra coin. A revolution begins with an idea. Perhaps it is not well defined. It begins as a thought, a intuition, a feeling.
I wish to take a few moments to reflect upon tea. Other cultures have created their own practice and ritual around tea. I will not attempt in any way to imitate or emulate those practices. It is not that I do not respect such ideas, on the contrary, I have much respect for the dedication and attention to detail paid to tea by these people. But this meditation requires that I consider alternatives. And if I am to arrive as at the same conclusion as others before me, than it is of no positive or negative consequence.
The wisest of men do not brew tea, but capture steam. Many have tried to sell me so-called iced tea. But such a beverage is but a bastardized spin off of the original form. Hot tea shows dedication and preparation, as it must be consumed almost immediately after being brewed. In days prior to electric and gas stoves, a hot cup of tea showed immense effort and work. Even in this trait, the best cups of tea force the drinker to slow down. Iced tea can be chugged while at half trot to the next meeting. I sit down and watch the white fingers of emerge from the tea cup and grab upwards towards the air. I cannot help but see my own soul grasping for something better in the sky.
Unlike its more vulgar 2nd cousin-twice removed, soda, and its more corporate brother coffee, tea retains its searing purity. While most spike their morning coffee with cream, sugar and other ingredients to attempt to make their caustic brew more palatable, hot tea is best consumed uncontaminated. The warmth slips through your throat and leaves the mouth warm and crisp. While sugar lingers around as an unwelcome guest, hot tea offers redemption as it leaves no trace of its presence. The only other beverage I can think of with this trait is water. And while water and tea are very similar, at least to the chemist, hot tea is more than the sum of its chemical ingredients. For if it was, tea and coffee would be but different vehicles for delivering the same jolt of caffeine to the oppressed masses.
Tea is one of the more transparent of drinks, perhaps only behind water. In that way, we may see the insight behind it. Such a lens is best when it is simple, for it offers the best view of reality. For tea does not ask for complicated recipes, expensive ingredients or complex flavors. It can be made by any poor student with some heat and some leaves. A man need not rent his life away for such luxury. The simple warmth of humanity is but a teacup away.
