Since my commitment during the Lenten Season involves (among other things) drinking only unadulterated black coffee, pure black, green, or red leaf tea, natural cranberry juice, orange juice, and high quality H2O, I ordered a tall black coffee from Starbucks in lieu of my typical half cinnamon vanilla latte or chai tea latte with a shot of espresso. The sleeve on my cup was advertising Tazo brand leaf tea and included a inspirational saying that read, "YOUR NEXT ‘ACTION ITEM’: DO AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE." I agree and disagree with the catchy and quasi-gimmicky phrase. I’ll sum up my thoughts in two short sentences and leave it there for your comments and reflection.
Apathy is violent.
Sabbath is elusive.
Those two sentences sounded like the beginnings of a great haiku.
I would comment, but I’m going to abide by the aforementioned life lesson and do as little as possible.
the following line is “welcome to tea time at starbucks.” during tea time, you are supposed to relax. british people do this. most of europe has some sort of similar custom. americans work all day, often through lunch. (heat up some spaghetti-o’s and bring them back to my desk so i can finish next week’s song charts…etc.) we [i] have a million action items, few of which involve relaxing and refreshing.
i guess i read that into their slogan.
they are a company who has been proactive in their dealings with global poverty, they get involved in community projects, and they provide health insurance for most of their employees. they seem less apathetic than many companies.
i like their message. and i agree with you: if you don’t make time, sabbath is very elusive.
i had to look up elusive in the dictionary and i still don’t really understand what it means. but if you’re saying that people don’t take sabbaths purposefully, which is dangerous; then by you saying sabbath being elusive, i agree.
nancy,
too late. oops.
deWeb,
i am delighted that you noted the linguistic ans sociological context of the phrase. i think most would not.
mattF,
you always make me laugh. in a good way.
“Apathy is violent” is an interesting thought. While I would agree that apathy is dangerous, or that it is the true opposite of love, I can’t say that I would classify it as violent except in certain, specific instances. Good thoughts.
PS – Shouldn’t you be doing musical-inspired activities instead of ditching out to the nearest Starbucks? Something about a Phanton of the Opera-themed dinner that sounds more appealing than a boring grande Pike’s Place Blend.
Dang, didn’t even look at the posting date. Never-mind that last part.
hey tk as simple as your little two-line closing was, it is really challenging, especially to the college community where we excel at wasting time. keep up the good work
sympathy is worse than apathy, when it leads to ill-informed action.
apathy can be good: nobody can care about everything.