Tea
2002 09 05
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I don't know when this tea-drinking habit started, I only know that I got it from my grandmother who was, and is, an incessant drinker of the herby brew. I have far surpassed her, however. I am sure that I drink more tea in a day than she does in a week.
Tea is a wonderful restorative and curative. If you're sleepy, tea helps wake you up. If you're wide awake, tea is refreshing. If you feel ill, tea sorts out your ills. There's nothing better than tea on a cold day. You can wrap your fingers around the cup for warmth, and feel like you've had an internal hug as it slides down your throat to points south. Tea is the drink you share with friends and the perfect friend in your solitude. As a wise Zen poet once said:
Strange how a teapot
Can represent at the same time
The comforts of solitude
And the pleasures of company.
Pathways; Restful Meditations - Zen Haiku, translated by Gary Crounse
Tea has personality. It can be sweet, bitter, warm, or cold, just like people. Tea can heal, soothe, and settle, and there are few problems so great they cannot be solved more easily with a cup of tea in hand. In many cultures, tea is more than a drink, it is a cornerstone of civility, a meal shared with family, the shared context and binding tie of company, a ceremony shared with respect. It is symbolic of truth and understanding:
"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."
- Japanese proverb
Tea comes in a million different flavours (with just as many ways to drink it), even that dreaded decaf kind, which strikes me as pointless (unless it's used for healing or you're having herbal). It's like drinking non-alcoholic beer - what's the point?
I'm addicted to tea, I'll admit that freely. If I don't have it within ten minutes after waking up, I'm cranky. It's the caffeine, in that regard. I'm not ashamed to admit that. Tea helps to soothe away most, if not all, of my headaches. I think someone would have to be threatening my demise in order for me to leave off the drinking of tea. I would gladly give up just about every bad habit I have in order to keep the pleasure of drinking it.
To me, tea rings of peace, honesty, comfort, solidity, perfection, accomplishment, truth, companionship, strength, and good conversation. There is nothing speaks so well to the needy parts of me as a good cup of tea, and it is the thread running throughout my day, and leading into another.
I have a very large mug made of cobalt blue glass that's my favourite implement to drink tea from. I don't sip tea in a pinkie finger up up manner, taking dainty sips. I guzzle tea. I inhale tea. I drink more tea per day than you could possibly imagine. My mug has more mileage than Mansell at a Monaco Grand Prix. I think that if you cut me, I'd even bleed tea.
There's a snippet of poetry from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam:
"A jug of wine, a leg of lamb, and thou,
Beside me, whistling in the darkness."
It could work just as well as:
"A mug of tea, a plate of cakes, and thou,
Beside me, sitting comfy on the sofa."
- Me