Beautifully Blended
Having common unity around shared opinions and perspectives can be comforting. Like-minded people who understand one another offer an easy atmosphere of free expression. But when the common unity is the town in which you live or the place you work, you’ll find people with various perspectives and functions that differ quite a bit. And while it may not be “easy” living, it’s pretty awesome.
I love how the bible uses the metaphor of the human body to describe the community of Christian believers. They highlight the essential role each part of the body plays while emphasizing the diversity among them. You see the interdependence of these parts. When each part of the body performs its created function, it supports another part of the body in performing its function and on and on to support a larger purpose.
But you can imagine the elements of the eye would have a very different perspective and function than those of the foot. In fact, if the purpose is to find the car keys, the eye, and the foot could be quite critical of how one another chooses to go about it. But when accepting that such diversity of perspective and function is beneficial to supporting the larger purpose, then we can better appreciate one another’s differences.
I think about this often when considering our team, the community in which we’re planted, or even my little family of four. While we have many common unities, we are also quite diverse. And that’s beautiful. Because our uniqueness supports one another. But it takes a little work. It’s not always easy. Sometimes we just don’t feel like understanding or accepting one another’s differences. We just want everyone to do it our way. But the eye can’t get to the car keys alone and neither can the foot. We cannot move forward without one another.
Our team ages range from 14 to 70 years old. Our lifestyles differ. Our interests and strengths differ. Our perspectives differ. And it’s so important. The weekly leadership table includes voices from various stages in life and a variety of experiences. There can be a lot of disagreement at the table, but at the end of the day, we filter our decision through the mission for which we gather so that, together, we move the business forward. We didn’t choose a mission to create great coffee to support coffee farm workers or promote cultural respect. We chose to embrace community and that encompasses all these and more. Because when we properly brew and serve great coffee, we are honoring the many hands that have gone before us to prepare the soil, to grow, to harvest, to process, to ship, to roast. And when we roll out the red carpet and serve all who enter with genuine hospitality, we embrace the diversity of our community.
Our shop was designed with the community in mind. We considered the various reasons for which people would gather at Fort Thomas Coffee. We also considered the town in which we were planted, studying its rhythms, interests, and needs. We print the city calendar and school calendar annually and build ours around it. We attend city and business council meetings and school functions. In knowing our local community, we accommodate young children, parents, students, friends, couples, businesspersons, business meetings, social clubs, and more.
In creating a space for everyone, we found it’s actually not for everyone. Not all are tolerant of the diversity and complexity of community. We receive more negative feedback about the customers at our shop than our service to them. It’s far easier to coach our team than our customers. But with that feedback, we continue to design house rules and rhythms to better accommodate the variety of purposes for which people visit and encourage our customer community to respectfully consider one another. We’ve designed a lesson plan for young students on how to live respectfully in community. And while there is the occasional screaming child, a rowdy student that needs coaching, or an unaware person on a loud phone call, what actually happens when community gathers is truly beautiful.
We believe in our mission to embrace community, and we stay the course. We love a tween playing on the Pac-Man machine while a mom watches her 3-year-old enjoy the playroom. We’re thrilled to see the college student plugged into the bar top next to a businessperson on a conference call. We enjoy the weekly mother-daughter coffee dates, family Fridays, morning bible studies, exercise groups, book clubs, teen hangouts, first dates, and more. To see the variety of purposes for which people show and how they wonderfully coexist brings such joy. From the youngest to the oldest and all the lifestyles in between, each person has a story to tell and it’s our pleasure to play a small part in appreciating it.
This blog post pairs best with a Blended Cookies & Cream Frappe for the sweetness that comes from combining elements in diverse forms including frozen, liquid, evaporated, powdered, and solid.
Recipe: Fill a 16 oz glass with ice + chilled brewed coffee. Dump in blender and add 2 scoops of Ghirardelli Vanilla Powder. Blend 30 seconds. Add a scoop of Oreo Cookie crumbles & Pulse. Top with whipped cream and Oreo Cookie crumbles.