My baby cousin Kelema (who is four, and will insist that she is no longer a baby) just became a U.S. citizen today! She has been a permanent resident for the past 4 years. She is from Ethiopia originally, and my aunt adopted her four summers ago: she came home in August 2009.
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| Kelema at the Farmers Market in Union Pier, MI in the summer of 2012. She makes friends easily. |
I have been thinking about how lucky I am to have such a smart, cute, sassy cousin. She will call (per her mother's insistence) to tell me that yes, she has eaten her protein and vegetables so that she can be "big and strong like her cousins". As it is time for midterms, and I am thinking constantly about Kelema, and Ethiopia especially. With its origin in Ethiopia, I am also thinking about coffee.
The following tale sounds like one from Kelema's multiple storybooks: In coffee folklore, a goatherd, Kaldi, was doing his goat-herding duty when he noticed the goats eating red berries from a tree in the Ethiopian highlands. The goats became energized and the energy remained well into the night. As any curious person would do, Kaldi tried the berries for himself, and experienced the stimulant. Neither Kaldi nor the goats could sleep that night. He took the berries to a local monastery, where the head of the monastery ate some, and noticed his ability to pray for an extended amount of time without diminishing focus.
Today, we still use coffee for a kind of devotion. We drink it for the same purpose: prolonging the inevitable hit of mental fatigue. Our liturgy becomes readings of scholastic articles and problem sets. Our faith in our higher education is tested during midterms. I rarely drink coffee, so the potency of the stuff still hits me hard. Coffee has become associated with working harder and playing less. There are many items that we use daily and forget to consider their origins. It is a nice reminder to drink coffee, in the midst of study-time, and be realize how lucky I am to have a baby cousin who I love to the moon and back (and even more), with a connection to the liquid in the mug in my hand.
Coffee folklore.. I never knew such a folklore existed! You're right in exposing how coffee has come to have such a devoted (cult-like?) following, some who will journey far for the perfect tasting cup of coffee and others who *need* it to start their mornings. I just finished dinner when I ran back to the dining hall because was craving coffee with milk. Not necessarily because I was tired but because I find it to be such a treat to relax and drink it while watching t.v. or reading.
ReplyDeleteAs Stacey said, I agree that its strange to think how devoted people are to their morning coffee. I am definitely one of them. I usually don't drink coffee as an energizer, but more as an activity that is instilled into my daily routine.
ReplyDeleteI like the connection you made between your cousin, Ethiopia, coffee and folklore.
Not only is this heartwarming but it is fascinating how prevalent coffee is, and was. For some reason I associate coffee with more modern times but folklore like this reminds me how it has been around for longer then I can imagine!
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