Thoughts on Tea

What's my tribe?

Even though I can find an interest group that I find myself aligning with at times, I've never really felt at ease with the opinions and thoughts of the people within that group.  For instance there tends to be a clear divide between coffee and tea.  I know I very easily fall within the circle of tea drinkers. But even within tea drinkers I rarely find people that have the same approach to tea as me.

So every now and then I try to see what others think about tea.  I'm not entirely sure why, since I've longed since seen how conservative views are on the matter.  There appear to be two main camps of thoughts on tea.  First is the casual consumer that gravitates toward fruity flavors and marvels at the wondrous innovations in the production of tea bags.  Second are the ones that venerate tea and all its history; looking down on the first group as uneducated rubes that have yet to experience the true taste of full leaf brews in delicate porcelain cups.

I don't think I've ever been part of the first group.  Tea bags will do in a pinch, but I would never say that it's something I want.  Plus even a cursory understanding of the tea industry will tell you how little effort and quality is put into each tea bag.  When all you're getting is the leftover remains of tea leaf processing, why not just go for the real thing?

But then there doesn't really exist much of a middle ground.  Because the second group veers all the way to the other end of the spectrum.  The Sisyphean goal of a more authentic experience is how I see this group.  Gone are the pastimes of merely enjoying the simple flavors in a warm glass.  Now it's a matter of the perfectly brewed tea.

Choice

Gin or Whiskey.

That is my current dilemma.  Although, to be honest I could just do both.

If only the rest of my decisions were so easy.  For now, I can just chalk everything else up to 'figuring it out'.  But in reality I should just pick something and move forward.  Right now I've got my two writing projects.  Another one in the outline stage.  And?

And nothing else.  What ties these projects together?  Do they point a path forward?

So I make a decision.  That's just what needs to get done.  Pick something and move forward.  Is it really that simple?  Good enough, right?  I do really wonder if life can be that easy at times.  Everything else is just my own brain getting in the way.  That's the real problem with choice.  Things are a lot easier when we just get out of our own way.

But that's just for an easy life.  Not a good life.  Not a happy life.  Not a drama-free life.  None of that is guaranteed by the choices we make or the decisions we are presented with.  The reality is that external factors that hold sway over a large portion of our lives.  So, we get in our own way trying to reach for these things trying to anticipate what the World has in store for us.

Yet Another Reboot

I've gone too long without a relatively unfiltered space for my thoughts.  Not that I have much streaming out of my head, but it's good to know I can just write stuff whenever I feel like it.

It's beginning to feel like time for a change.  Which is a little frightening.  If I wanted to I could just scratch out a small comfortable existence accomplishing little and risking nothing.  I'm actually a bit miffed that I've been raised to want more out of life.  It gnaws at me, the desire to do something.

Yet I don't have the ability to do much of anything.  For now.