Cold and Coffee > IDEAS & IDEALS

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With the start of new year I caught a very bad cold and suffered from it for over two weeks. I coughed severely, lost appetite entirely, and felt heavy and dizzy in the head constantly. I coughed and sneezed incessantly and expectorated thick phlegm profusely. Greenish yellow mucus ran ceaselessly from my nose. I didn't know I had so much dirty stuff in me. I felt so miserable that I thought I might as well die than live. I had already had cold so many times before, but I didn't know it was such a mortal torment as this.

     Anyway, I survived. I didn't die. Now I am in the last phase of my slow convalescence. I am glad to be alive again. I have recovered almost all the physical as well as mental functions which I had lost during the cold. I feel even the itch and temptation to write something, but I am hesitating to launch the task, simply because I am not sure if I am fully ready for it.

     I know there is a way to verify it. This morning I went into the kitchen and made my coffee with some skeptic optimism. It was the first try since I had caught cold two weeks ago.  If the taste of coffee has returned, I am fully ready to do my work physically at least. If not, I have to wait longer for my recuperation. Alas! As I suspected, my coffee failed me, or I failed in the coffee.  

     Yet, as you see, I have already started writing. Like a soccer player who should or must play the game in inadequate physical condition sometimes, I felt I should or must write something for my newspaper column, since I have not contributed a piece for a long while. The poor result of this article, therefore, is not hard to foresee, since this is the first piece ever written by me without the blessing of a cup of coffee.

     Among so many good and bad things to drink in the world, coffee has taken a unique place in my life. Fortunately or unfortunately, I am not smoking or I drinking, but I like coffee. To some people coffee is simply bad for their stomach and avoid it; but it has become more than just a fragrant drink for me: besides being a habit, a stimulant as well as a calmer, a conditioner, a charm, it is a holy rite in the morning, an inevitable ceremony after lunch, a channel of conversation, a catalyst of friendship, and a barometer of physical health. Without it I feel uncomfortable, uneasy and even unfit to do anything.

     For many people nicotine and alcohol do almost the same psychological as well as social functions as caffeine does for me, but as a man of feeble mind and body I feel relieved to find that there are not so strong public opinions against coffee as against smoking cigarettes or drinking alcoholic beverages. Apart from all the negative medical effects of smoking and drinking, I know, by experience and observation, that the former definitely makes the bad air worse, while the latter intoxicates man's brain to the point of losing it. Drunkards simply don't know where they are. On the subway train they talk too loudly disregarding the worried frowns directed upon them from the silent and tired passengers. I have not seen nor heard that a coffee-drinker has ever misbehaved anywhere.

     You should agree with me that all the coffee-drinkers in the world are gentle and civilized men and ladies. Go to any famous coffee shops in Seoul or anywhere, and you will find the places are clean and well-lighted and permeated by the good smell of brewing coffee - heavenly fragrance that none can dislike, if he is a human being. And look at the people gathering there. All of them are decently dressed to begin with, and either they talk softly to each other, or sit absorbed in some thoughts, or in reading (whatever), or silently waiting for somebody (friends or sweethearts) - all these before a cup of coffee. Can we imagine any other place like this where they sell other items? Definitely coffee has some magical or mysterious power in it that transforms the wild, dry and lonely life of the city into a gentle, romantic and civilized place.

     I wonder if our civilization could have made such a progress as we have it today without the discovery and wide use of coffee. Could so many good and excellent works of art have been made without the magic power of coffee? Yes, some prefer wine to coffee for their artistic inspiration and execution, but wine takes a heavy toll of its clients with its aftermath - many go crazy, lose health, become a great burden and worry to their families, and even kill themselves. But coffee, milder than wine, has the wholesome power of turning the enthusiastic frenzy of the artists into the healthy and sober creativity and help them produce more works and live longer.

     I marvel at the unbelievable speed and spread of the fancy and fashionable coffee shops in Seoul, like the tea shops in London in the late 19th century, where true English gentlemen were born. And, to my great surprise and delight, these coffee shops not only provide us with good coffee, but also a comfortable resting place, a reading room, an office room, and even a clean toilet. There, students may do their homework, elderly people can read their newspapers, lovers make a rendezvous with their sweethearts, poets can write their poems, and poor businessmen can execute their urgent business - making all these possible through the simple medium of coffee. I see the bright future of mankind in coffee. Think of the world without it.

     I am coming to the end of my writing. If I said something stupid or absurd, it was because, as I had said, I was not aided by the grace of good coffee. Now I feel like getting up and making another cup of coffee. This sudden urge, desire, and temptation to drink it is, I know, a sure sign of my full recovery. Ah, good!

     Now I retract all the stuff and nonsense I made about coffee drinking, but one inviolable, unchanging and rock solid truth: a cup of good and strong coffee in the morning dissolves the lingering sleep and prepares me for the day ahead.  
  (January 20, 2007)