A morning coffee thought
Comments: 4
My hotel overlooks Farragut Park (in the delightfully-named Foggy Bottom district of DC)and because I’m waking up early, I’ve been buying a cup of coffee and the New York Times and sitting there each morning as the sun comes up. In Japan, you could achieve a similar start to the day in one of the thousands of small local shrines or temples that dot the cities.
The other morning I was struck by a poignant kind of symmetry. In Japan and the US, the public space where you can sit and drink your coffee in the morning comes courtesy of entities to which we no longer pay much attention: gods in the case of Japan and historical figures in the US.
David Glasgow Farragut, by the way, was apparently the naval commander who said “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” which I was tempted to take as a motto until I reflected on the sort of trouble into which one could get taking it too closely to heart.
“Damn most of the torpedoes and let’s pick it up a little here” might be a more prudent approach.
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Posted to General Rants • 2005.05.13 (Fri) • 04:57
Comments
Posted by steve minutillo 2005.05.13, 05:29
Is that the secret? All those times we were absolutely DESPERATE for a place to sit down and have a break from walking… we were supposed to go into a temple?
Posted by jh 2005.05.13, 10:32
Yep.
Tokyo’s terrible for places to sit. I have no idea why. Washington, on the other hand, has benches everywhere, and squirrels (squirrels!) to keep you amused while you rest.
Posted by Keith Jenkins 2005.05.13, 14:19
Welcome to our fair city! Love your blog, by the way, hope you enjoy your time here. DC is a very interesting place!
Posted by Jeff 2005.05.13, 21:14
In Japan and the US, the public space where you can sit and drink your coffee in the morning comes courtesy of entities to which we no longer pay much attention: gods in the case of Japan and historical figures in the US.
Some might say our historical figures are our gods. Some, but not all.
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