The Coffee Chronicles

So, I don't have cable anymore, and it's actually no hardship at all. Except for craving Good Eats every so often, there's really very little difference. Charter's coax cable lies coiled in the corner, and I am spending my time doing other things. Except for tonight, that is. Come 8pm PST, I will aim my makeshift antenna in the general direction of Mount Wilson, and tune in to the last in a long series of "shared moments," as a Kevin Smith character would put it. Shared, that is, between the world of NYC yuppie life and me. Tonight, just in case you'd missed the news, Friends is coming to an end.

Perhaps - as I feel - it's not the end-of-an-era event that SatC's passing was, but it's a happening, nevertheless. How else can anyone explain that half-minute commercial spots during tonight's 2-hour finale are being sold for two million dollars apiece? Now, as one recent article put it, that's Superbowl money. It makes you wonder what the hype is all about. I mean, either Ross and Rachel will come together, or they won't. That's pretty much what NBC is hanging their hats on - and where the Friends will be hanging up their careers. I mean, really: although I don't think that they'll never find additional work, I don't think there's any reason they'd have to. At a reported million dollars per episode, the Friends, as it turned out, had become a hell of a bargaining bloc.

But, who cares? It's been great - at least, great for me, as a self-admitted Friends fanatic - and there will always be the DVD collections to come. Besides, what I'm really looking forward to is seeing how Joey does after his move to LA. I guess you can say, after all, that I have a vested interest.

At the risk of offending just about everyone in America, I'd like to ask the following question:


I mean disturbed, not just saddened. I will first put my question into perspective, especially for the benefit of those who are already preparing to burn me in effigy. Yesterday, a fine and fitting memorial service was held for this man, a former NFL star who turned his back on his lucrative career to serve this country as a member of the elite US Army Rangers. He was, of course, killed in action in Afghanistan on April 22, leaving his family, friends, and what is turning out to be just about the entire country wondering over the meaning of his decision.

Pat Tillman leaves a great deal of sadness in the wake of his passing, and a bittersweet moment for American patriotism - but what are we really to learn on this occasion? We can draw some inspiration from his example, surely - and that would be vital to those looking for some sort of meaning in their own lives right about now. But, That we should all run out and devote ourselves to public service? Personally, I think that the inflated language being bandied about in the press about public service is just a lot of lip service.

As I drove to work this morning, I listened to testimonials given at his memorial, such as the requisite address delivered by California First Lady Ms. Shriver, echoing her uncle's "Ask Not..." inaugural speech. Tillman's former Arizona Cardinals coach also added some remarks, which resonated with my particular understanding that Pat Tillman's efforts and drive were indeed remarkable. I wondered over the fact that our Armed Forces are, for the time being, a wholly volunteer organization, a military built on mission, dedication, and technology. A remarkable fact. It makes one curious, in fact, how the Armed Forces fill their ranks at all, given certain tangibles such as wage, working conditions, and just plain danger.

What really gave me pause, though, was a following piece - seemingly unrelated - on the present media battle between the Bush and Kerry campaigns, currently poised to become the most expensive ad-war this country has ever seen. Kerry, in an obvious jab at Bush's spotted military record, says (and I paraphrase), "...I felt it was my duty, given my privileged background, having gone to a University like Yale, that I should give something back." While I don't feel the right to disagree with Senator Kerry - as we are all entitled to navigate our own destinies - I have to wonder: how much of that sense of duty is logic, and how much is emotion? I don't think that there's room - on this page, or in my head right now - to answer this question, but it tugs at my sleeve, and so here you go:


And by this I mean, "What kinds of people?" Ah, well; when asked that way, it's a whole different ballgame, isn't it? And so it may very well be rhetorical by nature, in that a real answer doesn't even exist. How can it, if we indeed call ourselves a civilized nation of equals? Of course, if you really look around - and look at the folks who make up the bulk of our military - we aren't. And in the end, we're left with yet another question: are those that go to war the folks who want to or the folks that need to? It should be noted that Pat Tillman never offered an explanation in the public domain as to why he made the decision that he did.

I'm disturbed because I think that Pat Tillman's death is being misrepresented. His personal decision cannot - and therefore, should not - be used to create a kind of "exemplary profile" for hopeful Americans. There is great paradox in his charted course, just as there is a kind of precariousness in John Kerry's sense of duty. What is important - or patriotic, perhaps - to one American may not be to another, and may very likely, in the end analysis, be chalked up to emotion and an expansive gesture with no real explanation. It would be a mistake - and perhaps, in the case of the very private, very modest Pat Tillman, simply inappropriate to ascribe to it anything more.

Whether or not America's military actions in the Middle East are just, we have to realize that military personnel - workers, just like you and me and the guy selling candy at the corner deli - are dying in the course of their work. This is a big deal, and it doesn't matter if the dead are all Pat Tillmans or any other of the 600-odd names read by Ted Koppel last week. It's still hard to swallow.