BREW: Mike’s microcosm

You, The Press editor, enter Calypsos for a large steaming coffee. A mix of thoughts invade your mind.

You are behind in getting an introductory piece for the “Business Journal” (Nov. 30). You have just found out that Calypsos is for sale. The owners are Liberals. What if Conservatives buy the coffee roaster?

Why can’t people just get along? We need more people “dedicated to bringing people together” (Jan. 7).

At the table next to you are an older and a younger couple. You can hear bits and pieces of their conversation.

The old man is wearing a shirt saying, “BERKELEY Cal.” His wife speaks with a foreign accent. He has studied Russian. He mentions Kamchatka, Russia — research — friend Boris — Svetlana — Urals — nuclear submarine sonar design, aircraft navigation, police cars overturned at Berkeley, big red star on a Soviet fighter — Chinese roommate — Chinese scientist who gave him manganese nodules from the deep ocean…

The wife was not a U.S. citizen when in the U.S. Navy…

Are they communists?

You have to leave.

A month later you are back at Calypsos. There is the same couple. You learn that there is a book signing by their neighbor Kristen (“Who Do You Say I AM?,” 2017).

The editor’s first article was a “gentle rowing” on Lake Coeur d’Alene. The second article had the drum cadence of “attack speed” (Roman galley, Ben-Hur, 1959)!

The older couple are not communists, but followers of CHRIST! Another microcosm in the macrocosm of the Nation and the Universe!

JIM and ROSA PEARL

Hayden Lake