People At A Coffee Shop

People at a coffee shopThe Dutch visitor speaks the King’s English with a brogue that can’t be had for love nor money.

Maarten read ‘Matilda’ in Dutch at the age of eight. Then his parents gave him the book to study in English. Now, thanks in part to Roald Dahl, his emails are impeccable in both languages.

He spent five weeks here visiting a friend he’d met at an international political youth conference held in Ivory Coast. Like many at the coffee shop, he’s working to complete his dissertation.

Maarten recently finished his term as International Officer for the Jonge Democraten (Young Democrats), one of the largest political youth organizations in The Netherlands,.

Its mission is to secure access to civic liberties, equality and sustainability; to expand the definition of democracy from North America to the Middle East and North Africa.

The Netherlands won independence from the Spanish in 1648 only to create an colonial empire of its own (the Dutch only recently apologized for their role in the North Atlantic slave trade).

The application of international law, Maarten Tollenaar explains, is existential to a nation of only eighteen million squeezed between nuclear powers. He attends Leiden Law School which is just minutes from the Directorate of International Affairs and International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Young liberals in his organization are wary of the continent’s recurring infatuations with authoritarian-leaning politics and share the Euro skepticism caused by Brexit.

Maarten and the woman from our coffee shop he was visiting – an advocate for social justice in her own right – refer to each other as ‘partners.’ So there’s reason to think we’ll see more of the ‘Nederlander’ in the future.

Feel free to share.

People at a coffee shopDictators can intimidate the courts, institutions of learning and the free press into compliance. But coffee shops have a mind of their own.

April 5, 2025 – The idea of freeing ourselves from King George III grew out of colonial coffee houses scattered across the colonies.

Pamphlets and newspapers were read through clouds of tobacco smoke. Ideas about government were tested.

Those early Americans used the term “tyranny” to express their fear of autocratic authority. A healthy vigilance continues to this day. Every president since Washington has been accused of unconstitutional villiany.

We’ve turned to the word “fascism” instead of tyranny in modern times because the industrialized genocide committed by Nazi Fascists is seared into our consciousness.

What makes our current president more dangerous than any in the past is his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and remain, patently unelected, in office.

He is systematically destroying documents and rewriting our history about that crime and the riot that followed. He’s imposing a nazi-style retribution against officials who followed their sworn duty to hold him responsible.

The Yankee tradition of frequenting coffee shops and debating our liberties dates back to our founding. It would take more than an executive order to shut them down. Let’s hope we never go there.

People at a coffee shopAllergic to people.

Over time he’s learned to present himself as warm and approachable, gregarious in fact. And he is so convincing that people line to be his friends.

That complicates things for a person who reacts to social activities like some people react to gluten and chemicals in cleaning agents.

Before the epiphany, he was trapped in a feedback loop of his own making. He’d invent flaws in friends as an excuse to keep his distance. When they stopped inviting him to do things, he was free to write them off.

There’s no way to eliminate his need for time alone but through a series of false starts, he’s taught himself to live comfortably.

He’s close with his family and friends on a one-on-one basis. He stays on the outer edges of social circles in a way that won’t be noticed. He avoids appearing aloof.

Books and the outdoors offer refuge; he can find his way around a kitchen. He avoids entertainment that jams his receptors, especially if a laugh track is involved.

Some years ago he experienced his epiphany.

A friend he admired described himself as “inwardly directed” and somehow that prompted the man to search for keywords like self-sufficient, self-possessed, independent, resilient, innovative.

A book about the power of introverts helped him see that he’s not an oddity, that there are millions of others like him; and that they’ve been given a gift in disguise.

Our closet introvert seldom talks openly about his allergy to people because no one here at the coffee shop would believe him if he did.

People at a coffee shopThere are precious few places where the walls can talk. This happens to be one of them.

The walls of our cave speak volumes about the people who put their drawings, paintings, photos and whatnots on display.

The process is simple. You ask the barista to add your name to the schedule and some time later you own the walls for a month.

Nobody asks what kind of stuff you plan to show. There’s no judging or no curating. No prizes. Each month is an adventure.

It’s a joy to see unrecognized artists given a chance to share their creations.

Some of the works come out of tutored workshops but much is created in garages, basements and on dining room tables. It ranges from ‘naive’ to ‘indigenous’ to ’street art.” Some of the works have important things to say. Occasionally one of them will take your breath away.

The prices applied to the art will scarcely cover the cost of materials (works in cadmiums and ceruleans deserve a healthy surcharge)…but then a dollar value is a barbaric way to judge an artist’s output.

One day around noon Ruby could be seen walking toward the coffee shop from blocks away. She was carrying what turned out to be a work of assemblage art in progress.

She briefly stepped into the coffee shop to show it to the members of the clan. And as it has happened in caves through the millennia, we gathered around and eww-ed and ahh-ed.