There are two camps in Seattle when it comes to Starbucks. The first category is stereotyped as the latte-sipping yuppified hipster who can prattle off a good deal of coffee-related Franco-Italian lingo without ever taking a language class.
The second group are those who might post this on their car.
Me? Firmly planted in the second group.
My soapbox of Starbucks is mainly about the lack of fair-trade and equal exchange purchasing of their coffee beans, as well as the general nauseating addiction to twiddle the consumer's money-spot. Starbucks sells everything under the sun, from corny mugs to CDs to board games to toxic-doused stuffed animals, all majorly overpriced and made in China. To boot, they are probably the only coffee chain in the entire city of Seattle that doesn't carry rice milk. Didn't they get the memo that soy milk causes man-boobs?
But the one thing I can truly dig about Starbucks is their uncanny ability to inspire the masses by placing quotes on their 10%post-consumer recycled cups. Here's a few that I picked up today:
"In a world where celebrity equals talent, and where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth, and stability in your life." -- Bernie Brillstein
"Be the example; spread hope." -- Cat Cora
"In the end, we're all the same." -- Ben Kweller
I particularly dig the last one: it reminds me of a realization I made in the cadaver lab over the last two years. It's in the third quarter that we take the skin off the face and examine the facial muscles and nerves. And it was during these times, both as a student and as a teaching assistant, I traversed the lab and pondered the skinned faces of the bodies with a profound sense of awe and wonder.
Every body looks the same underneath the skin. Once the skin is off, you can no longer tell what the person's gender or ethnicity or race might have been. They become elegantly and satisfying human, linked to all humans, alive and deceased. We are all following the exact same developmental plan of life creation and death manifestation; we have the same blueprints and body layouts. We are one, and indeed, in the end, we are all the same.
2 comments:
There was always something about Starbucks that was disturbing to me. The way it just seems to magically appear everywhere and then take over like locusts. I've never purchased any sort of Starbucks product (I'll admit, not liking coffee helps, but I digress) and now you gave me a more valid reason. Thanks!
It is slightly creepy...like English Ivy....or metastatic cancer.
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