Tiny Tea Tales: Stroll, Sip, and Sagan
Annals of a late summer date over spring black tea on a pale blue dot.
For our first date, we met for an early morning stroll. I came dressed to the nines, dot at 7. He came in a dusty grey, worn-down sedan with a broken side mirror 10 minutes late. He looked handsome in his all-black athleisure; relaxed and almost self-assured. I was clearly self-conscious. His eyes were big, bright, and forceful, mine could barely rise above my reservations. But I liked him. From the few text exchanges we had, I found him exceptionally interesting. Eager to impress, I carried a thermos of micro-lot, Darjeeling spring black tea. It’s my favourite kind of tea and my favourite kind of topic. He, on the other hand, brought a blazing mind flaring with an unruly, unfettered, and unfiltered love for the universe. Literally!
Over the next 3 hours, he took me on a deep, dramatic exploration of cosmos and consciousness. Matter and mind. Neurons and nebulae. He spoke as if he knew the universe intimately. Like it was his to define and distil. But the way he cut to the heart of the matter - with poignant ease - it was pure magic. He was pure magic. I was beginning to love how his mind leaped and then explored all these worlds within our world and how he strung ém all with threads of divine beauty.
"Do you know of Carl Sagan?" he asked. I nodded. Smiling, he quoted him on the pale blue dot - almost as eloquently. And just like that my micro-lot, spring flush Darjeeling black tea became the third most interesting thing on that date.
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