What's The Point?

I don't ask that in a throw up your hands, rhetorical, I give up way. I mention it as a reminder: sometimes things have a point and we aren't always so good at getting it, the point that is.

Starbucks has begin putting quotes from celebrities of various type on their hot drink cups prefaced with the phrase "The Way I See It." What you get is something like, "The Way I see It...'cheese is pretty darn good'" or "The Way I See It...'you just spent too much on a beverage."" The point being, they are the perspectives of individuals.

Perspectives and values can be wrong, they can also be correct, but part of the process of learning wether they are correct or wrong is expressing them. Part of the learning wether we are wrong or not is listening to others. It's also just a part of being human; we have to, at some point, realize the world is full of a whole bunch of people who aren't us. Everyone else is a "not me." I, in turn am not you. The point being, if we even think of others, we generally forget how not me others are. Starbucks is throwing perspectives into the ether, at least the dense ether of the upper middle class that can afford four dollar drinks.

I like this campaign. Not everyone, though, is happy with this exchange of perspectives. It can be pretty threatening when other people's otherness is literally in our faces. About a month ago some Christians started boycotting Starbucks because it was promoting a homosexual agenda with one of the "The Way I See It's." That is, an other wrote this:

My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.

Armistead Maupin

This morning's USA Today has a story about Rick Warrren's perspective being on a Starbuck's cup. His perspective is basically his book in six sentences. While I wasn't a big fan of the phenomena that was his book, I am a fan of the way he has condensed it and offered it as a view to share with others. He says this:

You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose. Focusing on yourself will never reveal your real purpose. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. Only in God do we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance and our destiny.

I like that there is a place where both of these ideas can be expressed. It may be a bit tragic that it's happening on coffee cups and not in our churches, but with the ubiquity of Starbucks maybe it's just a matter of time until that happens. The point being, it's good that some people didn't like Maupin's perspective, some people aren't going to like Warren's, some people may begin to talk about these things, some people may begin to realize there's a point beyond what is said on the cups.

The truth is not on these cups. The truth is not something we accept or reject from a market of ideas or persepctives. Some poeple (Baylor University, Concerned Women of America, American Family Association) seem to be acting as if it is by saying, "If you say this, we won't play with you anymore" (boycotting Starbucks). By running from the simple expression of an idea, we seem to be saying that truth is about competing ideas and our ideas cannot compete. The point being, it's okay to talk about things. It's good to talk about things with people who don't think like you. It's good to have a forum where people are not going to automatically know and agree with your perspective. It's good to not hang on so tightly to our perspective that we cannot be drawn into the Truth.

By the way, my favorite "The Way I See It" is from David Cross:

Chances are you are scared of fictions.
Chances are you are only fleetingly happy.
Chances are you know much less than you think you do.
Chances are you feel a little guilty.
Chances are you want people to lie to you. Perhaps the answer lies on the side of a coffee cup.
You are lost.

And Then Sometimes There Isn't a Point
All Together Now-The Beatles
Do Ya-ELO
Walkin' After Midnight-Patsy Cline
Microphone Fiend-Eric B & Rakim
Flower-The Eels
Suffragette City-David Bowie
Trav'lin' Light-Billie Holiday
19-2000-The Gorillaz
The Heat's On-Dizzy Gillespie
Bluebird-Buffalo Springfield
Freedom of Choice-Devo
Jumping Around-The Rentals
That's The Way of The World-Earth, Wind, and Fire
Mi Chiamano Mimi-Angela Gheorgiu