The Tao of the Folgers Coffee Pot
I just returned from Las Vegas, Nevada where I attended “The Great West Truck Show”.
I met a few people from Twitter that I already knew and few new people who were presenting innovative products into the trucking industry. I look forward to chatting more about these folks later and hope I see them again at the Dallas Show in August.
My trip to Las Vegas had a personal nature as well; I used to have a home there.
When I returned to Texas, which is where my Truck was having the A/C fixed, I found myself wondering about human nature as I often do, Ego, Pride, Narcissism, Greed, Dishonesty, and Hostility.
Waiting for the repair to be complete, I paused in my company terminal, rather distracted but found myself fixed an old Folgers coffee pot that had been set aside from the others.
The small printed safety directions were almost rubbed off but I gazed at them trying to make out each word. I found Wisdom in those words and “Tweeted” them out on Twitter.
Some people got as much of a kick out of it as I did like @MadBaldScotman and @Longhawl who suggested I make a post to share what I saw as I compared the coffee pot to human nature.
So join me now in imagining that The Folgers Coffee Pot can either be yourself or others. Let me share with you “The Code” of the Folgers Coffee Pot.
To avoid breakage and injury (to yourself or others as I see it)
- Do not boil liquids in the pot. (Don’t lose your temper)
- Do not heat empty pot. (Don’t jump to conclusions)
- Do not clean with materials that scratch (Do not criticize)
- Do not use a range top of any kind. (Don’t discuss something important with an irrational group)
- Do not bump. (Don’t Provoke)
- Discard if cracked, scratched or heated empty. (Don’t try to fix people or things beyond repair because you will be harmed yourself)
- Do not pour towards people. (Keep your hate and hostility to yourself)
See, life is a challenge each day to be kind to yourself and to others. When you are trying to express your opinions and you let your temper, ego, hate or hostility take over you lost your audience. That is why this Coffee Pot now sits alone away from the rest. It is no longer of any use because it is unreliable. It might work, but most likely it will cause greater damage so why risk it. Just leave it alone now because it’s really no good to anyone anymore.
You might believe when you scream and yell that you are convincing people but actually people tune out and move on somewhere else.
Thanks to this worn out coffee pot things were put back into perspective for me quickly. We all need that sometimes. Yelling, name-calling others, it doesn’t make allies, only division and mistrust.
Even those close to you are left wondering, when will this person turn on me? This character issue of trust has been shattered, they can no longer be trusted.
I see it a lot and it’s disturbing we have permitted ourselves to live in a “Jerry Springer” climate.
I can’t control what others do but I can control who I let get near me. I have to give thanks to this old coffee pot for getting my attention and reminding me what “I” want to do about “MY” conduct.
Thanks, Coffee Pot ….
Wonderful! We all need these reminders from time to time. Don’t know what happened, but I missed your coffee-pot series of tweets–I’m glad I revisited and found this post! But be careful about taking advice from a “de-caf” coffee pot; I only trust the “brown tops.”
Don (big grin)
Question for the venerable coffee pot philosopher: should one warn others before they use a cracked pot, or should one allow them to learn on their own and maybe get burned?
Is this perhaps where the term “crack pot” came from?
: )
[…] Thanks, Coffee Pot …. […]