one small corner of the universe

You know in those old Bible movies like “The Ten Commandments” when something spectacular happens and the skies open up and light blinds everyone on the ground and angels are singing, not an actual song but more like background music–one long sustained note that could melt butter? It happened to me today. I stopped at Starbucks because I’ve been thinking about my long lost friend the decaf 2% latte, and I wanted to see if maybe we could patch things up. You see, I used to begin every day with a latte, sometimes from Starbucks but usually one I made myself. Even after I gave up caffeine I still had a latte every morning, because friends, even if you’re not addicted to legal addictive stimulants, there’s nothing as smooth and creamy as a well made latte. But over the summer the latte and I had a falling out. I blamed the hormones for my inability to swallow the creamy concoction I’d once called breakfast, and after a few days of trying to make it work there was a parting of the ways. I started drinking tea instead, and then eventually plain coffee (decaf, of course), but I still missed my latte.

Today as I neared my neighborhood Starbucks I thought, why not, maybe enough time has passed, maybe the hormones have stabilized, maybe we can work things out. I placed my order, made my purchase, and took my steaming cup to the car. When I took the first sip, that scene from “The Ten Commandments” started playing right there on Wendover Avenue in the middle of morning traffic, and I said to my cup, “Oh, latte, where hast thou been lo these many months?” and all was well with the world. Or something like that.