Consistency can be overrated

Starbucks often makes me shudder (despite their espresso brownies and chai), another example of corporations overtaking a real culture replacing it with the artificial.

Yet, today I found myself sitting in the Rive Starbucks waiting for a writer friend my daughter's age. Jimmy Durante was sinking Inky doo, or how ever you spell it, in the background making me feel as if I were in a time warp as well as a national warp. Any number of teenage girls to young women seemed to be dressed in a uniform of short short dungaree shorts and white tops fastened with a belt. A couple of young men in business suits and expensive briefcases looked as if they were pretending to be adults.

My friend arrived and we spent the next couple of hours in a wonderful discussion of everything from writing, to politics, to national differences. There are only a few friends that I have that have both the American and Swiss/French experience to understand both while admitting we are outsiders in both cultures. And the longer we spend as "internationals" the harder it is to find people who understand us. Those who do, become real friends, whether they are Swiss or American.

We discussed those around us and their "uniforms" and she said in NY it seemed in Starbucks the employees were black and the customers white with only a few exceptions. This women, trained as an anthropologist, often has insights that ofen opens my eyes. This lead into class differences in the US and Switzerland, the acceptance of immigrants in both cultures (US no, Swiss yes) and on and on and on.

The time together ended too soon. If I were inconsistent in being willing to spent time in a Starbucks, I can live with that, but next time we meet, which will be several months down the road maybe we'll got Auer's, with its special family recipe hot chocolate and locally made croissants... The place isn't important...the sharing is.