photo by Manel
I have a love/hate relationship with coffee. Just this morning at 6am I drove to Walgreens to buy more. It's moments like these when you realize that saying it's anything less than a chemical addiction is dishonest. So, why not quit? Well, I have, many times in fact. One of two things always happens. Either I cave from the withdrawal symptoms, or, if I turn the screw slowly and actually manage to quit for a few weeks, I return to it convinced that I like life better with the bitter brew. It's hard to know what's true. If it was a more insidious or at least illegal substance, it might be easier to judge. But what if coffee-maybe we're really talking about caffeine here- really is great. I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what positive role, if any, coffee plays in music. Maybe after this I can make my mind up once and for all.
There is a surprisingly lengthy history of coffee. To summarize, no one knows for sure who first discovered the bean. There are several apocryphal tales including one of a goat herder who noticed his energetic herd eating the bean. What we know for sure is that the plant originated in Ethiopia and was well known in the Middle East and North Africa by the 15th century AD. From there the bean was first brought to Italy before spreading to the rest of Europe. Finally the Dutch brought the plant to the New World. One reason we tend to drink coffee instead of tea in the United States is because of the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress declared it the official drink of the state in protest of the British tax on tea. I wonder how different society might be if we were still predominately tea drinkers. It's hard to imagine cowboys sipping Earl Grey.
Now let's look at some of the pros and cons of drinking coffee. It totally depends on who you listen to and when you hear them say it. One year, coffee's killing us and the next year it's curing what ails you. So let's look at the things that are a little more obvious. First, coffee aka caffeine is a stimulant. I've tried switching to green or black tea before, and it doesn't work. I think it's because there is just so much more caffeine in coffee than in tea that it becomes unrealistic to be able to drink enough tea to replace that pot-a-day habit. So by far, the reason most of us start drinking coffee and the reason it's so hard to quit is its stimulant properties.
As far as stimulants go, it's fairly innocuous in terms of negative side effects, at least ones you notice in the short term. Most people complain about the mid afternoon blahs when they reach their coffee's half-life and they experience an insulin coma from their lunch buffet adventure. Compounding the problem seems to be the body's threshold for caffeine uptake and the limits of our adrenals to pump out additional juice. I find it ironic that I had a horrible coffee experience while writing this article. I wrote it over the course of a few days. On the second day, I tried to get up at 6am and get going. My body did not cooperate. After the first cup, a necessity for wakefulness if I'm to sleep less than 8 hours, I thought I was going to throw up. After my stomach settled I knew I couldn't drink any more for a few hours, so I went back to bed. Epic fail! So, the threshold for coffee seems to have a cumulative component as well. In other words, the number of days in a row that you push beyond your normal energy limits, the less likely you are going to get that jolt you are looking for. I can't help but think that I would have more energy over all if I was completely off the brew. I imagine it might be like nicotine. You can get the chemical out of your body fairly quickly, but getting your biochemistry to reset takes months. It's pretty discouraging, especially when you can be tempted by all this medical research claiming coffee is good for you. At this point, I just wonder if it's not similar to what doctors said about smoking in the 1950s. Another con for coffee is the stains on your teeth. I'm not as concerned about looks as I am about the acid destroying my enamel.
The points I've made so far about the negative side effects are pretty straight forward. But what about the addiction aspect? What's the price we pay for dependency? I already mentioned my early morning trek to replenish our coffee supply. Surely we pay a price for our loss of autonomy, either physically, emotionally, or spiritually. A part of my love of music and the art I produce is freedom. There's an escape from the cares of daily life that the arts provide. I guess the initial lure of coffee, and most substances for that matter, is this escape. There is the escape from fatigue, but there's also the mind/mood altering escape. If you reduce you coffee consumption for a few days, and then suddenly drink that extra cup, you'll know what I mean. All of a sudden, you are "king of the world" ala Leo in Titanic. We get a little slice of this high each daily dose we consume, but as our threshold is reached, we either fly ever closer to the sun Icarus-style or we accept our limit and achieve junkie-stasis.
Despite my obvious resentment of my coffee addiction, I have to admit that most of my music and writing achievements have been under the influence of a steady caffeine drip. Maybe in the coming weeks and months I will get some courage to try to quit again. If I do, I'll turn it into a series of journal entries. If I'm successful it might help someone, and if not maybe my suffering will be amusing. Below are a couple of books I've been wanting to check out.
So, what's your take? Do you find coffee to be as indispensable to the creative process as I have? Have you tried to quit? Please feel free to comment and share.
(UPDATE: This article has been in the tank for a few weeks. I've been using the Ipad while my PC was down. Since I wrote this I purchased the book Caffeine Blues. So, expect a review after I return from vacation.)
