HOW STARBUCKS SAVED MY LIFE A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else Michael Gates Gill

I’ve seen students in Starbucks in early morning, coffee mug at hand, studying desperately for finals. I thought maybe this was going to be a testimonial of some sort.

Well, it is a testimonial unlike any you would expect. It’s an upside down story of achievement. A man rises by going from the top to the bottom. How often I’ve heard people advise young people, “You can always work at Starbucks.” I may have urged that on some of my grandchildren. It looked like a good place to learn how to work in the world.

This guy, Michael, born of wealth and successfully employed, was unexpectedly fired when he was about 60 years old. He had it all, by most standards. Suddenly he lost it all, along with a palatial home, a loving wife and family. He had contributed to the situation by entering into an affair with his psychiatrist that resulted in a pregnancy. The child of that relationship was the only apparent bright light in his dismal life.

Here he was, sitting in a New York Starbucks, dressed like a Wall Street exec, cell phone at the ready in case any of his job leads should call. A business-like lady, black, was at a nearby table. On a whim of some sort she caught his eye and asked, “Would you like to come to work for me at Starbucks?” To his own surprise, and to the lady employment recruiter, he said “Yes.”

So this former six-figure income executive reported for work in a New York City Starbucks, wearing black pants and white shirt. Not only was his employer and boss black, but so were all the employees and many of the customers. He was not only a minority in color, but was also the oldest by far. He started at the bottom, cleaning toilets, floors, fixtures until he did it right. Gradually he worked through all the jobs, even to making the multiple coffees on the Starbucks menu.

How did it save his life? First he had to deal with the humiliation of the whole situation. Status was gone. He had to let that go. Not easy in the masculine world where identity is so often attached to position.

Then he had to deal with his racist attitudes and class assumptions. He looked in the mirror and saw the truth about himself and his attitudes.

Third, he learned to like working at Starbucks and learning the Starbucks attitude toward “guests” and detail.

Anyway, he made it through and at last report was still happily employed at Starbucks which came to value what he had to offer once he learned the Starbucks way.

A good read for anyone, especially for anyone who has lost status employment and needs another way of looking forward. ─ Art Morgan, January 3, 2008

LIVING THE FAITH

I have my Bible ─ actually one of about 30 ─ open to the pages of Jeremiah. Don’t get the idea that I always have my Bible open, certainly not to Jeremiah.

The fact of having it open touched off a series of thoughts.

How many people ever read Jeremiah? How many actually read the Bible? Clergy have to read it if they are going to deal with a text. I’m told that these days even clergy don’t read the Bible. They are getting their texts and commentaries right off the computer screen.

How many people who swear faith and belief in the Bible read it at all? How many believe it cover to cover but hardly know what’s in it? More Bibles are owned than any other book. They are like most of the various translations I keep on my shelf ─ just sitting there.

I see men come into coffee shops in the morning sometimes. They carry big Bibles and buy a cup of coffee. They talk a while and sip. Then they open to some passage to read. They discuss for a few minutes and maybe bow for a little prayer before leaving. I suppose it is a church-generated activity. A sort of spiritual A-A group. I have been tempted to ask whether they know what they are reading. Like who wrote it, when, to whom, why, what did it mean then, does it mean the same thing now? That would be presumptive of me. If it moves them to be better people, go for it.

My thoughts moved to other books we have on our shelves and lying around the house. We always seem to have books on nutrition and health. We have recipe books and current self-help books. How old do we have to be before we have this stuff all figured out?

These books are just like the Bible. They offer insight and promise. They require belief and faith. They don’t do you any good unless you live what you read. I realize that we don’t always eat as we know we should. Owning the book doesn’t help if you don’t read it. Reading it doesn’t help if you don’t live it.

A chuckle sounded in my voice uninvited. I thought of Bible thumpers and how we hate those who try to press their version of truth on us. We tune them out. The same is true of diet or nutrition book thumpers. Each has its own “truths” to thump. Try talking to someone about the health benefits of kale or how damaging sugar and white flour is to your health. Watch eyes glaze over. You just as well be talking about the latest truths you have gleaned from Jeremiah.

I know from experience how difficult it is to live up to our nutrition books. I have enough trouble trying to do what I know without pushing what I know on others.

Jeremiah actually captivated my mind for an hour or two. His certainty about hearing God’s voice and knowing God’s mind is unusual. What makes me keep reading is the realization that he was saying things that the paid prophets did not say. He spoke bad news about the future of his country and the direction of its leadership. When people say hard things that go against the tide of the times maybe we should listen.

One thing about the Bible, you can find places that sound downright contemporary. It is a mistake to think that the words were written for any time other than then and there. Yet human history has a way of repeating itself. We might learn if we listened to people like Jeremiah talking to their own times. From the apple of God’s eye his nation has became spiritually arrogant, morally corrupt, greedy, and self righteous. A nation like that cannot survive, says Jeremiah. Superpower or not, God’s children or not, there is a judgment in the universe that overthrows even the mighty.

What if we had the vision of a Jeremiah about our own country? How long until our own consumption and trust in military might and attitudes of superiority and lack of humility among nations and exploitation of land, seas, skies and resources, extension of empire into countries not our own will bring about a new version of the words of Jeremiah?

We don’t read Jeremiah, or if we do we put him aside like we do our diet books. We don’t like to be reminded that there are consequences in the world when we believe without practice. Someday our country will be like a man I overheard coming off the elevator at the Clinic, “I should have stayed on my diet.”

We would be better to be like a new couple that signed up for the class for seniors at the gym. “We decided it was time to shape up. We’ve put it off too long.”  That’s what Jeremiah was pleading for.

I’m going to put Jeremiah back on the shelf. He might be getting to me. ─ Art Morgan, January, 2008