14/100: Bob Ross Drinks Coffee
This article looks at Day 14 in a series of 100 visits detailing what happens at my local library
I get to the library early today — three minutes before opening. Five other people wait with me. I’d estimate that our group ranges from the mid-twenties to mid-sixties. I study these people, wondering if there’s anything here I can write about today. The only thing that stands out to me is the variation in our drinking vessels.
A duo wearing matching Barbour jackets drink from brightly hued his & hers Yeti mugs — his, a washed-out turquoise, hers, sunflower yellow.
A man in a baseball cap holding a no-frills, paper cup of coffee.
Another woman with one of those trick coffee cups that looks like a to-go paper cup but on closer look is made of some kind of reusable rubber. It’s printed with the blue and white pattern traditionally associated with the drip coffee of New York City delis, though based on her Patagonia puffer coat and RayBan aviators I suspect it contains an oat milk latte.
A man wearing an N-95 mask and carrying a Nestle plastic water bottle.
And me with a stainless steel mug, the bizarre means by which I signal my values, views, and demographic cohort to those around me.
If you read Saturday’s post, you’ll know a nice man told me about a book sale happening that day. I ended up going and it was awesome. Alongside volumes on 20th-century graphics, leftist typography, new environmentalism, and a collection of lesser-known classic short stories, I got a book on Bob Ross.
Happy Little Accidents is a compilation of the little pearls of wisdom the artist he would famously weave into his televised tutorials for over a decade. Among them:
If we all painted the same way, what a boring world that would be.
I have a habit of thinking that people who carry themselves differently than I do — at least in some aspects — have it wrong. For instance, coffee cups and water bottles. Why can’t these people just use reusables?
There’s a word for my line of thinking — intolerance — but if it’s intolerance for behavior that I believe to be bad, doesn’t that justify my intolerance?
Bob Ross would likely answer that it doesn’t.
No Frills Paper Cup and Nestle Bottle are no better nor worse than I am for using takeaway cups. The same is true of the Yetis, for having snazzier versions of mine. Even Patagonia, with her synthetic simulation of authentic New York — none of our drink containers are better or worse than one another. It’s a matter of personal priorities. A coffee cup is different things to different people. For some, it’s a vehicle of self-expression. For others, it’s something to drink from. And there’s a lot of wiggle room in between.
Another Bob Ross -ism:
We each see the world in our own way. That’s what makes it such a special place.
Thanks for reading to the end! If you’re enjoying this series, you might also like:
13/100: It’s Saturday and I’d Rather Be Taste-Testing Cheese
10/100: The Elusive Perfect Anecdote
