1+1 (always)= 2

I was reading a book by an author that I really enjoy. I noticed something about his writing that I particularly love is his ability to seamlessly weave his old memories with his present life condition. He never specifically notes that this is an effect he uses to emphasize certain emotions or highlight his reaction at any given moment, but as a reader, it’s easy to get caught up in reliving his memories as vivid interactions with his future.

I think that every encounter I have during the day is some sort of nostalgia for who I’ve been in the past or people I knew in the past. I am all for “shedding the skin” of yesteryear…but on the same token, this is one reason that I believe we all strive to have higher callings for our lives, each and every day, because today is simply going to build upon that foundation of who we have been in the days leading up to today, the decisions we make, they all culminate into our immediate reality.

The reason I bring this up is because I noticed some strange behaviors yesterday at work that play out this actualization. I am not talking run-of-the-mill strange things that are the epitome of social differences or quirky weird “I-can’t-make-eye-contact-because-I-haven’t-had-my-coffee” strange, I am talking strange in a sense of social trend that is so ordinary and common it’s almost indecipherable. I can’t believe I haven’t spent more time thinking about this.

We have a lot of TI (Texas Instrument) employees come in to get drinks or after lunch snacks as we are the closest Starbucks to their plant. These employees range from warehouse to security detail to corporate executives in suits and ties, it’s a gigantic corporation. Imagine the characters that play the staff on the TV hit, The Office, but on a much huger scale.

The TI technology people that come in, ALWAYS in groups, never alone, faceless, nameless “groups” with their nametag ids dangling down on necklaces decorated with flair, declaring them to be “so and so” from “so and so” technical department…I imagine them as middle schoolers, grade schoolers, high schoolers…and I think, as they talk about the encryption this or decode that, in their little clique language that is full of inside jokes that sound sidesplitingly boring. I only say this because they strike me as the kind of people that were kids that weren’t big enough for sports as a teenager and not social savvy enough to have been the class clown or helpful “geek for a day” best friend to the pretty cheerleader. They were probably the kid that got ignored, not even unique enough to have been made fun of… These were the kids that skated by, maintaining good enough grades and an intact enough self-esteem to make something fairly interesting and successful of themselves as adults. Having survived by never taking chances too risky or complex, as they wanted to stay just mainstream enough to never really do anything but blend in. These people are exactly like they were in high school, but legal now. Not that it would matter.
Not only do they not get speeding tickets (not that I would know anything about that), but they probably never scored a basket or ran in a touchdown to the cheers of hundreds of people. They probably never walked into a room to have everyone look at them and envy the clothes they wore or their fashion sense. They probably never dated the quarterback or cheerleader. They probably never won a contest except one of those Coca-colas with the winning lids for a free Coke that they never even redeemed because they forgot about it and it expired.

Their lives have been celebrated for normalcy.

I like my TI people because of this- they don’t change their drinks. They drink what we fix them. They don’t ask for frills or extra shots or caramel drizzle or dry foam or 180 degree milk… They are simple for Starbucks workers. Even if we never remember their drink, because the drink, like them, is very forgettable. I don’t know how many times I have asked (insert generic male name here) what his drink is (insert generic Starbucks drink here, as is on menu, nothing added) and then gone, “OH yeah! How could I forget?!? You’ve told me a hundred times!” and he says, “Maybe one-hundred and one.”

Oops.

Even if my TI people live life with a safety net, I still like them. They tip big and always smile. I can depend on them, even if they do kind of freak me out with their robotic like consistency. They are a lot like the calculators they manufacture at the plant- dependable, and useful on the SAT.