Let's face it, coffee is a drug. Some of us take it everyday, and it is accepted by society. There was a time when its use and acceptance wasn't as widespread as it is today. In Europe, coffee was sometimes seen as the drink of trouble-makers because of its association with coffeehouses, where political issues were discussed and plots concocted. Coffee turns you into a blabbermouth if given half a chance, as the existance of this post vividly illustrates. In most cases, however, the drink was generally accepted. Some religious practitioners saw the benefit of drinking coffee, for example, because the brew allowed them to focus during long hours of study, prayer, or meditation.
Unlike alcohol, which turns on the mammalian brain within us, coffee doesn't depress your thinking or enhance your emotional-territorial game-play. Coffee is not a somato-sensory neurochemical like cannabis, which gets you "high" and tunes your perceptual apparatus to the somatic signals of your nervous system. Coffee turns on the symbolic mind- the ability to juggle symbols at fast speed. It puts your neuro-laryngeal-manual apparatus into high gear and allows you to organize resources in the service of your symbol-juggling monkey mind.
Coffee is
spatial intelligence
reason
logic
the spark of symbolic organization
linguistic cunning
the fine tendril of steam rising in the morning.
