The Imperfect Game – by Michael Kell

A Cup of Conversation – by Michael Kell of GoodBean Coffee

I’ve noticed that columns in the Review have become engagingly pithy and more personal. This is a very good thing especially considering the culture of air-brushed social networking profiles in which we now have to compete. In plain words, a thousand friends on Facebook does not mean she’s popular, a thousand likes on Facebook does not mean he’s successful and a happy-looking profile on Facebook does not mean they’re happy.

Getting a sincere glimpse under the hood of another’s life really sells today and people have an amazing capacity to discern what is real and what isn’t. It’s comforting and reassuring to know were not alone in our struggles and disappointments. We’re continually bombarded with well-executed corporate messaging telling us what we’re not and will never be without the product being pushed. No wonder our teens feel so disenfranchised. We need more testimony that it’s perfectly fine to be imperfect.

Maybe this is why women gather for tea and cookies to share a little (often more than a little) about what’s happening in their lives. Men will do the same under a different pretext on the golf course over a cigar and a cold beer. Gentlemen, by the way, if you think the ladies are not talking about you, have another cigar and enjoy the short-lived albeit sweet bliss of ignorance. Certainly not all the conversation is about how great the kids are doing and how all the bills are paid. Let’s face it, we’re all walking-wounded to some extent and it helps to know we’re not alone and adrift on the stormy sea of humanity. There is a reason why Dr. Phil sells prime-time. Candidly, this is one of the reasons I agreed to write this column. Keep it real.

A small town provides lots of material for humbling copy, especially twenty-plus years of real life like the time old Don Wendt the former publisher of the Jacksonville Nugget (now since passed) walked by our shop closed for the day’s business on his way to a city council meeting. Don looked in the window only to see Mary hurling bags of coffee at me in response to something insensitive spoken at the wrong moment. I had just spent the evening roasting hundreds of pounds of coffee to deliver the next day and was desperately attempting to catch the coffee fast-balls so they did not explode hitting the floor and ruin a day’s work. I knew what I said was untimely and foolish by the sheer velocity the bags were coming at me. I recall offering up a rapid staccato of too-late apologies laced with silent but urgent prayers the bags would endure the pitching exhibition. My pretty wife does not throw like a girl so it was nothing short of a miracle not one bag of coffee was lost! Don hurried down to the local watering hole to announce that Mary was throwing coffee bags at Michael and invited everyone to come and see for themselves! Now that’s old-school small town, up close and personal. In case you’re wondering, my wife gave me permission to write this although the story’s been grinding in the rumor mill for decades.

So here’s to imperfect people in imperfect relationships working imperfect jobs loving imperfect kids while imperfectly navigating this crazy, imperfect world. Here is to us

GoodBean owner Michael Kell

and all our faults and flaws which are actually the messy connecting threads on the backside of the beautiful tapestry of life. May we all grasp that a life well-lived is never to the standard of another’s social profile, but rather measured by a simpler metric—which is, what we do with what we’re given—what is forgiven—and how much those around us benefit.

Be Good not bitter.

Posted October 9, 2013