Cuppa Joe

What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?

I first thought about the word “daily” and immediately went to my coffee maker and morning routine. My cheap Black and Decker Goodwill special curated after a cracked pot accident seemed inexcusable for this missive.

And then it hit me. My special coffee mug from Boy Scout Camp Thunderbird. I had been a camp counselor and a grateful scout who was too young to take the canoeing merit badge refused to leave the class on the first day and with fierce determination passed the hardest part on Thursday by pulling another canoe over the gunnels of an occupied canoe, with the help of another student.

On the day of his departure, he handed me a camp coffee mug and said thanks—he was going to go on a canoe trip with his troop and that he needed the badge to go on the trip.

I still use the same cup every morning for my coffee. It motivates me to keep grinding forward on any project I have in front of me.