Sometimes it seems like the world is moving too fast. Drive through Houma on a weekday or attempt to escape Nicholls by way of Audubon Drive and Percy Brown Road after class has let out, and you will know what I mean. Yet there we sit in this fast paced world, with 10 destinations, unable to get to any of them. It seems we cannot escape this fast paced world we have created. We buy textbooks online, we order to-go meals from nice dine-in restaurants, and we stop by Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. to get paper to print the term paper due in the morning.
I remember when the first Wal-Mart Super Center opened in the area. I remember shopping with my father and noticing the extremely low prices. It just seemed like they were giving stuff away.
Walking through Wal-Mart 10 years ago was like walking through the gauntlet– I was dodging falling prices left and right. Today, those price gaps have shrunk, the competition has decreased and all we are left with is a one-stop shop that no longer saves us money, only time.
As the world evolves into a stage of convenience, the places of escape become fewer. There is one place, though, that has for centuries served as that place of escape, the place for social interaction, the place for great minds to discuss the fates of countries or the origins of life. The place I am speaking of is the coffeehouse.
For me, my escape is The Coffee Table. Whether I’m cramming for an exam, writing a term paper, having a Law Club meeting or just shooting the breeze with a friend, I find my escape sitting amongst doctors, teachers and fellow students, surrounded by welcoming walls decorated with paintings by local artists.
Sometimes I just sit there daydreaming about the great minds of the past that have guided mankind, men who need no first name– Voltaire, Rousseau and Nietzsche. Some days, if I am lucky, I may catch a glimpse of some of the great minds of Nicholls, also people who need no first names– Stall, Perkins and Tully– getting a cup of coffee or sitting and chatting with colleagues.
When I am at The Coffee Table, it just seems like the fast pace world slows down a beat, and for the moment, I feel like I have defeated the world of convenience and entered the endless world of meditation where great minds converge. I know I am not alone.
Recently, a new coffeehouse, one that needs no first name, has opened in Thibodaux. To most coffee drinkers, Starbucks will be a godsend. After all, does it get any better than a coffee shop with a drive-thru window? In this world of convenience, I doubt it can. But with Starbucks and its drive-thru window, its fast tempo music playing to send you on your way, its small tables crammed in even smaller corners and more tables sitting outside the building than inside, society has lost another battle in the war of convenience.
The desire for convenience plays a huge role in our lives. I am that person in the Wal-Mart lines at 3 a.m., printing paper in hand. However, when it comes to a cup of coffee and a nice relaxing environment where we can approach the plane of enlightenment, convenience should not prevail. If it does, we are robbing mankind of something great, aborting new and wonderful thoughts before they are born and most painfully, preventing new generations of great minds from ever having the time to sit down and ponder.
