This is a difficult letter to write because it is causing me to look at my own habits and how those choices affect the world. My biggest vice in life is COFFEE! Every since childhood it has been my comfort food. I remember my parents always had a pot of coffee on the stove. Mom would make me my own brew with 3/4 milk and a little coffee with lots of sugar for a special treat, as far back as I can recall.
I went to a songwriting retreat this weekend and we were instructed to write 4 lines about something close to us. Sitting in front of me on the table was a container of Jasmine Pearl tea. I have always felt a twinge of over indulgence whenever I poured a cup because each of the delicate tea balls were HAND ROLLED by someone over in Asia! Those lines then turned into a song (see below) that stretched from tea to coffee. I began to research about how coffee used to be grown on small farms in the shade of the rainforests. It was a safe haven where birds flourished. In past years, due to the ENORMOUS popularity of coffee shops, coffee growning is a huge business and those forests are being cut down at alarming rates.
Now...I have known this fact for years and I try to drink organic 'shade tree' coffee whenever it is available or at home when I buy it, but for the most part I have closed my eyes and continued to fill my cup whenever and with whatever~!
If I am going to write letters like this-complaining about this or that...I should try to walk the talk. This is SO hard to do...I am a SPOILED AMERICAN and I am embarrassed about that.
I guess this letter is more for ME than YOU...Mr. President. It's a reminder to myself of the CAUSE & EFFECT. I am going to try this (but I can't guarantee I'll succeed). When I drink coffee from now on, I need to know where it came from and if it was grown in a sustainable way. Fairtrade coffee is GREAT! It is just a small step, but one in the right direction. BOTTOMS UP!
Sustainably yours,
One Worried Mom
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Words & Music Donna Stjerna April 2013
Jasmine Pearls unfurl...they unfold without a care
I think about Asian women...rollin em into tiny spheres
I pick up my china cup...settle in my comfy chair...
take a sip of fragrant tea, flavored with those women's tears
At night they cover racks of tea, with those precious Jasmine flowers
perfumed like a concubine...they blow away come the morning hours
I try to tell the future with...the leaves left in my cup
Everything has a price, close my eyes and drink it up
They say ignorance is bliss...but I wonder...if it is???
Coffee once grown in the shade...on small farms 'neath canopy
The Java Jive is on the rise...they're cutting down those precious trees
We throw away those paper cups, never take the time to think
I fill up my big ole cup...close my eyes and take a drink
Workers down in Guatemala...pic a 100 lbs a day
Children slave out in the fields...no one gets a living wage
Barista with a lovely smile, fills me up to the brim
Sometimes I ignore the facts...and then the coffee wins.
They say ignorance is bliss...but I wonder...if it is???
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