Today, I want to share something I found while reading At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell that made my coffee neurons happy. Then, I’ll talk a little bit about a collaboration I did with my blog friend Teagan from Teagan’s Books.
Let me start with the existentialist part. No, I’m not turning into an existentialist, which, in essence, is a philosophy that explores ways to live an authentic life.1 The reason I’m reading about existentialism is that it’s part of a deeper study I’m doing on Stoicism and its relationship with other philosophies, especially as I look for similarities.
One of the fundamental aspects of Stoicism is that worrying about things outside your control is futile and isn’t going to make you happy. Instead, happiness is based on what you can control, such as living virtuously, learning, and engaging in activities that strengthen your ability to remain unaffected by external factors.
Existentialists try to enjoy things, objects, or events as they present themselves to a person in the moment they are experiencing them. Here’s the example I read in the book that triggered my coffee neurons and made me stop to get myself a cup of coffee.
It started with the question, “What is a cup of coffee?” The explanation went on to say that a person holding a cup of coffee might start thinking about its chemical composition, where it came from, the type of plant it grew on, or how caffeine affects the body. A better approach is simply to enjoy the cup of coffee and describe what the person is experiencing in that moment.
“This cup of coffee is a rich aroma, at once earthly and perfumed; it is the lazy movement of a curlicue of steam rising from its surface. As I lift it to my lips, it is a placidly shifting liquid and a weight in my hand inside its thick-rimmed cup. It is an approaching warmth, then an intense dark flavour on my tongue, starting with a slightly austere jolt and then relaxing into a comforting warmth, which spreads from the cup into my body, bringing the promise of lasting alertness and refreshment. The promise, the anticipated sensations, the smell, the colour and the flavour are all part of the coffee as phenomenon. They all emerge by being experienced.”2
Was that good or what?
So, put aside the theory behind things and just enjoy the moment.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the second part of this post is about my collaboration with Teagan. By the way, if you’re not following her blog, I highly recommend that you do.
A few weeks ago, she reached out to me because she was thinking about writing a post about shapeshifters that she intended to publish close to Halloween weekend. Teagan recalled a discussion about the Taínos, the Indigenous people of Puerto Rico, in one of my posts and asked me if I could write a few lines about shapeshifters in Taíno culture or perhaps share some other Puerto Rican lore.
I told her that I knew a few stories but needed to do some research to get the details right. So, I did the research and wrote a couple of paragraphs. As I was thinking about sending her what I had written, I somehow saw a story in those paragraphs, so I decided to turn them into a short story called A Tale of the Jupías.
I would like to invite you to visit Teagan’s blog by clicking here or on the image below. I hope you enjoy her wonderful post and my short story.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week while enjoying a nice cup of coffee, tea, or whatever your favorite drink may be. Just remember to disconnect from the world for a moment and simply enjoy your drink.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism ↩︎
- Bakewell, Sarah. At the Existentialist Café. (p. 41). New York: Other Press, 2016 ↩︎
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