When the Pot Cracks – Tea, Love and Envy

There it was: LOVE.

LOVE was big, obvious, and undeniable.

As it often is, LOVE came unexpectedly. What was LOVE doing in New York? As a Philadelphia native, I admit to wondering if it was accidentally borrowed, i.e. stolen, from the City of Brotherly Love’s City Hall or LOVE Park.

Now LOVE is in New York. What was it doing in Midtown Manhattan? The answer is obvious: LOVE only shows up when and where the need is most critical.

Seeing LOVE up close and personal, the next steps became similarly obvious:

• See LOVE.
• Share LOVE.
• Remember LOVE.

I continued walking down the street, thinking about LOVE, and counting my blessings as cups waiting to be filled.

Make Mine Matcha Green

“Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.” – Harold Coffin, American humorist 

Counting the bubbles floating atop this bowl of matcha at Radiance Tea Room, I mentally replayed some recent actions, conversations and decisions. To return to the present moment, I caught a whiff of an aroma like fresh grass and admired the contrast of deep jade liquid against the white bowl. (This bowl of matcha belonged to someone else, so the first sip was not mine to taste.) All present paused to know whether this matcha tasted as delicious as it appeared.

Awaiting my fellow tea aficionado’s first sip reaction, I received a parallel thought almost as obvious as LOVE. Envy and matcha share a color association… green.

Envy or Matcha? That’s the question.

Both start very small. Both get whipped up into a froth within seconds, thanks to human effort. However, the aftertaste is the deciding factor.

I prefer drinking an uplifting bowl of matcha green tea to the bitterness envy produces. After all, there’s plenty of empty bowls and matcha green tea to satisfy everyone. Why envy someone else’s bowl of matcha when with some action, i.e. placing an order, I could drink my own?

Make me green with matcha. Let others envy.

Caulking the Little Teapot Cracks

Teapots endure high temperatures and sustained heat. If a teapot cracks, it’s due either to a major blow outside or a little crack growing out from a chip internally.

Who wants a cracked pot? Cracked pots hold no tea, but serve as decoration only.

For an unapologetic tea aficionado, any mention of deliberate teapot sabotage is tantamount to treason. This is taking a functioning object and rendering it useless.

Similarly, creating public forums to air private differences are lumps left in the matcha bowl or a teapot’s treacherous chips of envy. For those who love tea, we are for all tea represents and all the people tea represents.

Tea is better than envy. We who drink tea too must be better. It is better:

• To acquire than to steal.
• To create than to criticize.
• To pour into than to chip away.
• To come together openly than to undermine stealthily.

Let us do what tea inspires. Remove the lumps and chips. Let there be tea.

Cups up!