freedom in my order

Who would have thought sitting in a Starbucks on a Monday morning would impress upon me the reason why America is so great. Well, South City Saint Louis anyway. First we have Aretha followed by Us3 making it's way through the speakers to my ears warming my heart and possessing my toes to tap and stretching my face into a grin. As I sit in the plush over stuffed leather chair only a $4 coffee could invite you to sit in, I slide my Time magazine out to read about the world outside of my comfortable, caffeinated cove. I squirm in my now too soft, now too plush seat as the images of a struggling world are presented to my hungry eyes. The sight of young men and women trying to defeat an oppressive leader that has lead their country to march under his thumb for 30 years. The Japanese facing the triple threat of earthquake, tsunami, and radiation exposure. Knowing that fear has to be resonating but you don't hear that rising from their throats because all that comes to their lips is how the Japanese thrive on adversity and find strength knowing theirs is a culture built with deep resilience.
Norah Jones' calming and seductive voice snaps me back to the commerce, capitalism and coffee that is surrounding me. I gaze in a daze as businessmen wearing suits and college students wearing hangovers bustle in and out. I watch every color of the coffee rainbow walk out with every color of the human rainbow. Their drinks never quite matching their complexion but mirroring more their neighbor. I feel a camaraderie with my neighboring coffee connoisseur even though to start a conversation would probably embarrass us both. Due most likely to the Sarah McLachlan induced simper the Starbucks speakers have once again enticed.
I watch as strap-y heals line up behind grass stained sneakers. The shiny oxfords open doors for the non-slip clogs. Never once doubting my decision to forgo brewing my own grounds and thankful to my neighbors that the only grounds they'll filter this morning are the concrete steps and tiled floors of our local Starbucks.
So why do I love America? For $4 you can quench your coffee craving and enjoy a chair that lets you in on the world around you. The world wearing tattered and worn out boots, laced loafers and flimsy flip flops that are passing by quickly and ordering precisely. Knowing that I have the freedom to wear what I want, read what I want, work where I want and consume what I want. Leaving me to want for nothing.