While I'm not so much into the sugary drinks, I do enjoy an item that is not posted on the menu board in the store--the little known or long neglected Short Latte. It's fabulous. No frills, no syrup, no non-fat non-milk creamer. Just some steamed whole milk and an espresso shot in a surprisingly petite 8 oz. cup. It's delicious. And I love it.
The question I ask myself is, why do I love it?I remember a certain day that Kara and I were both not working, and we had a gift card from my Mom, because she worked for Starbucks for two years, so we went to Starbucks. We got drinks and went to the park. Reading the stuff on the cup it gave all kinds of impressive statistics about how by purchasing Starbucks coffee we had helped something like 30 millions of tons of fair-trade coffee be produced. I wish I could find the exact text that appeared on the cup because reading it I felt like I was the best person in the world. I had made the right choice. I had bought the cup of coffee that would change everything, eliminate poverty, disease, and global warming and bring about world peace and the Kingdom of God.
Really Starbucks? Buying your coffee makes me a better person? Or does it just make me think of myself as a better person, which actually makes me more of a jerk who's likely to judge the character of people who shop at your competition? How am I actually changing the world by drinking this partially recycled cup of organic fat and caffeine?
I'm not.
I just feel better about not changing the world because Starbucks is really, really good at making me think that buying their stuff is the same as doing something to change the world. That is to say nothing of the smaller, more "independent" hangouts that brand themselves the same way with the additional perceived claim to morality based on their size and their struggle against "the Man." Does the fact that I prefer those little places really say something about the superiority of my personal taste or the quality of my soul in comparison to another, or is it just that I am more susceptible to that type of marketing?
What a fool I am. I so much want to believe that I am a good person and that the products I buy confirm that I am a good person. I want to believe it so bad that I'll believe the people making the products when they tell me their products are a testament to my good character. In reality the cup of coffee at Starbucks/the Mudhouse/the Coffee Ethic/Gailey's has nothing to do with my character, or at least no more than a 44 oz. soda from a gas station.
But shouldn't we learn where our stuff comes from and try to only buy good stuff from good companies that are good to people and the rest of God's good creation? Well, certainly, yes. I believe that is a great goal. But should it really surprise us that our own concept of "good" is very broken? We've been discipled for decades by literally millions of TV, radio, internet, billboard and other types of ads since we were children. If these are the sources we look to to form our morality, should it surprise us that morality is defined as purchasing the right products of a certain "Ethos" that are of sufficient quality at a reasonable price? (Oh, and we won't mention anything about the chemical addictions that come with these products. That's for free.) We like to think that constant exposure to media input has no effect on us, but I'm learning that I am much more affected by it than I would like to admit. I become more and more sure the deeper I dig into this stuff that getting a right understanding of "good" (at least in the sense of Plato's Forms) is something I may not even be capable of.
In fact the only hope I have of ever being good, or coming to understand what "good" really means, is if Jesus Christ is who He says He is and has accomplished what He says He has accomplished. But that is another blog post altogether.
