The Parable of the Barista

What to do with our material selves

In 2016 I had a spiritual awakening that changed my life. (If you don’t already know this about me, then you can read about it here.) Immediately after that experience, I spent a lot of time researching what had happened to me, which has different names in different traditions. I reached out to many different people who seemed like they might have relevant wisdom to share. One of them is the source of the following parable.

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Imagine that you are a barista.

You spend your days working in a coffee shop, primarily by making coffee for customers. Maybe part of your day is spent cleaning up or on various maintenance tasks, but your main gig is making coffee, in small batches, to each customer’s specifications. Often, you have to make a lot of coffees very quickly. Your coffee shop is a small franchise of a larger chain, with many similar locations across the land.

Now imagine that, one day, someone who appears to be the CEO of your entire coffee company comes running into the café where you work. He comes right up to the counter, and breathlessly he sayeth unto you: “I have a vision for this company.”

There’s a line forming behind the CEO. You know that people will become upset that they aren’t getting their coffee. You have much fear and respect for the CEO, of course! But you are accountable on an immediate level to your boss, the franchise owner, as well as the customers. Also, are you sure this is the real CEO? He looks like the real guy from photographs, but it’s not like you’ve met the CEO before.

“That’s awesome,” you say to this guy. “What kind of coffee can I get you?”

The CEO is now haranguing you. He has stars in his eyes. He has a plan for this coffee company. He is telling you that this will be the greatest coffee company in the world. He is not helping you make coffee or anything like that, though. He is just standing there and expostulating wildly. His speech is remarkably affecting despite its grandiosity, and you are moved. At the same time, the customers are restive.

Eventually — and especially if this happens more than once — your reaction is going to be something like: “I need to make 20 coffees in 15 minutes. Does your vision for the greatness of this coffee company help me do that, or not? If not, then what does it help me do? Maybe I should just get back to work.”

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This parable has made me laugh many times over the years. I think it applies to all kinds of inspiration, small and large, not just massive and sudden spiritual forms.

P.S.: After the publication of this post, I reached out to the person who I recall as this parable’s source. He said he doesn’t remember saying this, and added, “It’s yours now!”