Thoughts

Sometimes I wonder how we got this far? I am the manager for a local coffee shop in the town that I live in, this town also happens to hold a Starbucks. The question on my mind is based off of this idea…. I’m sitting at that Starbucks right now and enjoying a cup of their Pikes Place coffee, not because I prefer it to our coffee or that I even prefer ours to theirs, simply because I enjoy coffee. When I entered the store I was greeted with a joke about my being a trader, a sort-of “aren’t you on the enemies turf?” kind of question. I understand the humor but my question is to what motivates that idea. Before you think it, I understand competition, I run the competition; I also love what capitalism has given us the ability to do but why are we still, in such a free country, driven to the point that every waking moment is a war, or maybe a really subtle battle? I’m not trying to pull the peace love and happiness card here, but let’s be honest sometimes the competition has better ideas than we do, and sometimes don’t we have to loose to realize we were wrong? Winning isn’t an option, this I know but what if we were willing to concede from time to time? What if two great local powers, be they native or implanted, came together to bring about more awareness of their product? Further sometimes can’t you just enjoy your opponents success, viewing it as simple and joyful success, in a humanitarian light, and a congratulatory light of someone elses accomplishment of the American dream? And one more thing sometimes their coffee is damn good.