I’ve spent most of my life trying
to overcome an addiction. Yes, that’s right.
If I don’t get my morning “joe” I’m pretty useless.
I’m not just talking about
adult years here. It’s been that way since I was about thirteen years old. When I
started to think about the “Big Questions” of life.
I don’t know which was
chicken and which was egg. We were talking about morning and breakfast, weren’t
we? But back to the coffee. Does that fabled delicious beverage with its wonderful
aroma and now, we learn, over 1,000 beneficial compounds, lead to mental focus
and contemplation of philosophy questions? Or did I need the jolt of caffeine that coffee provides
when I entered the netherworld of adolescence?
Teenagers’ sleep cycles
reportedly rage, just as their hormones do, during those transitional years. In
fact, while some experts say teenagers still need 9 to 10 hours of sleep a
night, adolescents' body rhythms swerve into sleep cycles more attuned to blood-sucking
vampires than the happy teenagers of “Pleasantville.” So, of course they need
caffeine to get their sleep-deprived bodies moving before noon.
I’ve hear it said the Renaissance
burst forth fully formed from the Dark Ages upon the introduction of coffee.
Geez, that makes so much sense. Prior to coffee and tea, Europeans, without a ready
source of safe water, had been drinking alcohol to meet their fluid needs. Can
you imagine creating great art and stumbling upon amazing scientific breakthroughs when you
hadn’t had your morning coffee?
But enough about history.
Let’s talk about the monkey on my back. The problem with any addiction is the
initial dose no longer satisfies. So where one cup use to provide that initial
reassuring wake up and caffeine rush, after a short while, I’m stumbling around
until I’ve had the third of fourth cup of java.
Back when coffee was one of
those beverages you were supposed to limit, if you were not one of the blessed
teetotalers, I tried to limit my consumption to one or two daily cups. Then
with the craving, the creeping numbers of cups climbed higher into the high
single, or dare I say, double-digits, to satisfy. Also, periodically, to get the addiction under control again, I would go
cold turkey and just wallow in full-on caffeine withdrawal. And I suffered. I won’t
even mention the nine months of each pregnancy where I suffered through
caffeine withdrawal. I will say natural childbirth was a breeze compared to
facing mornings without coffee. There, I didn’t mention that pregnancy thing
at all.
So now, all of a sudden,
imagine my surprise when the experts come out and claim their research shows coffee
drinkers live longer than non-coffeistas, all other things being equal.
SO NOW I JUST NEED TO CONSIDER, IN MY HIGHLY-CHARGED,
CAFFEINATED-RENAISSANCE MINDSET, HOW TO PEEL MYSELF OFF THE CEILING. DID I
MENTION MY “CUP” IS A GIANT, FILLED-TO-THE-THE-BRIM MUG?
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