Coffee Shop Kids
From The Vaults: August 2015
Do you ever sit at a coffee shop and just dig the people…? Or maybe a train or bus station- an airport. Anywhere, really. People are so interesting and important. To my left at this coffee shop in Palo Alto I have two old men playing Scrabble, to my right a middle aged couple, most likely early forties… It's a Sunday in Mid August, talks are of the coming school year, kids, work, etc. It's so simple and beautiful. I used to- and still do from time to time- ponder the infinite eternities of Mind and the cosmos and "what IT all means," but, too much of that will drive you crazy. I've recently become aware of the importance to balance those mind explorations with the simple appreciation of the people on this planet and subtleties all around that make life so gently graceful. People all trying themselves to grow and raise kids, and pass on genes and make love and find security and live fully and make some meaning of it. The couple are out to Brunch, I cannot tell whether they are in love but they are happy now. Together in each other's company enjoying a nice meal, on a beautiful central coast of California afternoon- in this moment. It can all be so simple.
The men playing Scrabble seem retired and are just meeting up to talk about their lives and their kids and all the experiences they've had throughout their most likely about 65 years on this planet. THINK about that. They were 21 in 1971, approximately, the beginning of the fall off of the 60s movement (politics and war, civil rights, sexual, artistic, and of course the drugs), but which became here- in Palo Alto- the beginning of the countercultural technology movement. What does today look like through their eyes? They have seen and lived and experienced the complete metamorphosis of culture and society. In 1971 you had to find a telephone which you may or may not have owned to meet up with some friends. Now we send a text at light speed. Think about that. Think about the complete sprouting of a bud they've seen. Personal computers didn't exist yet. What I'm doing right now had to be done on a typewriter and published through some type of newspaper, magazine, or some type of print press, and was only accessible to the local area. Dig that; we are so fortunate to be growing up and young in the time we are in. I have said to a friend once that the work They've been doing since the 60s was, has been, and is still being designed for us, right now, the Millennial generation. For some reason it just makes sense to us and we know how to use it.
But this post isn't suppose to be about the whole quantum age thesis, I have plenty of that coming. This post is about people. Who I just found out now are all from Jersey like me. The guys to my left- is from Hackensack, and the man in the couple to my right- from Edison. Wow. Small world. See what you won't know until you start interacting and talking, and digging, and being spontaneous and opening up to people and the world. One of the guys to my right asked if I was going to Stanford, I said no, UC Santa Cruz, he said he'd rather be going to Santa Cruz. I dig that. I'll leave it there.
We're all on our own journey just trying to make something of it, hopefully trying to learn and grow and have experiences that we remember and take for lasting. One day at a time. One breath at a time.
Ian Vincenzo Crispi