Café con Leche

​Part I: Introduction   
Saludos World.

Café con Leche.

To me, this has come to mean more than just milk with coffee. But being able to drink to life. Knowing, there is more than one truth. More than one perspective. Life in many angles.
 
Literally, pacing slowly through the streets of New York City, waiting for the coffee shop to open, I hear ever so subtly, a couple talking about how they wish their life was “more complete”. My mind folks did not process that as just another innocuous comment.
 
My wife will state I never received my inoculation “for just once” taking things at face value. So ergo, I overanalyze things. Whether it drives her crazy in love for me, or just crazy, either way, we are still happily married.
 
But to my lectors, I apologize for my digression ever so slightly.

Going back to the comment of that couple, that wished their life “was more complete”. I started to ask myself, what were they talking about? What did they want more in their life of? In what sense?

That generalization was driving me kind of mad. Like a mad king, type of mad.
 
You know, in Spain, to which I consider my homeland, they would say that comment made my mind “Zarandear”, or literally, have my mind agitate and frenetically go back and forth from one thought to another.

But it was not like my childhood innocent “Zarandeo”, when my grandma would ask me if I wanted a Spanish Ham Bocadillo or a Spanish Soup (known as a Cocido), where either alternative was going to satiate my hunger.
 
Here, my mind was looking for the reason why it was racing? Was I going to get a potential answer to the couple’s comment “more complete”? Was it going to only lead to more questions?

To more “Zarandeo”?
 
Am I ready to explore this topic?

Am I afraid that I will keep finding more questions than answers?
 
Ok. I thought fine. This will be a journey of a million editions, always slightly adjusting the version of the story.

But because of what? Because I was pacing in the city waiting for coffee? But I do want to kind of find out what does “more complete” mean? Also, I still wanted my coffee.

My Café con Leche, please.
 
Part II: Before The Versions of Thought
I have this insatiable desire to dig 4 levels deeper that my wife would argue sometimes is unnecessary. I tell her that 99.9% of the time, she is always right. And it is possible to be always right 99.9% of the time, but that is for a different narrative.
 
Ok, let’s dig. “More Complete”?
 
They wished they were “more complete”?

Does it start at childhood?

Maybe?

Ok let’s start there.
 
In our childhood, which is characterized by our innocence, was there something that made them grow up a little faster? Was there instability or too much stability that either made them feel they are being overly challenged, or not challenged at all?
 
Right?

OK, because if one is overly challenged and made it, there will be a sense of “being complete”. Which in this case, will help explain the word “more” in “more complete”.
 
Right?
 
Ok, but if they had too much stability, did they feel there was something missing?

Could they be missing a challenge?
 
But then, they would not have said “more complete”. They might have probably said, they wished their life was “more challenging”. But again, who really goes out of their way to make life more challenging? Like life itself is not challenging enough.
 
Oh no audience, the “Zarandeo” continues!
 
So, relating to childhood, did they have children? Did they feel they needed one to be more complete?

There was no stroller. The couple was relatively young (at appearance). They seemed to have marriage bands. And they were holding hands.  And this couple had love. I saw their love. Love for me completes me. I literally used part of that statement in my vows.

So, this can be possible.
 
Now before everything. Before hearing the “more complete” comment. Before this Zarandeo. My mind was simply resting. And I was saying to myself, oh this married couple reminds me of my wife and me. But they had to say those two words. “More Complete”.

Two words can really throw you off to again, that “Zarandeo”.
 
Was this a game of “azar”, in Spanish meaning a greater force or strength that has an already predetermined outcome. Did life place that couple there on purpose? To be walking at that exact moment? And force me to hear this?
 
Is there a purpose for me, to write about this?

Was it part of the game of azar?
 
You know, that coffee should not have created this. I feel that I am creating my own 21st century version of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. 21st century because as I am typing this, I see people messaging, snapping, tweeting, pinning, whatsapping, and instagraming. All of which are a thing.
 
Am I just simply mad?
 
Am I overthinking something where my wife is always right 99.9% of the time? How am I going to tell her that she is right, once again?

Oh yeah, by telling her. By the way there is a reason why I am married for so long.
 
So, “More Complete”?

Just to think, I only wanted my coffee.

My Café con Leche, please.

Part III: Versions of Thought (Uno)
Ok let’s go into our first version of thought, to help decipher what they meant by “more complete”.

Are they currently going through an “amarga” or bitter time, and want “more” dulcificacion or sweetness?

Was there something that made them want to change the world, or simply modify their day?
 
Did they begin with a black roast of coffee? And did they add the milk themselves? Did they add the sweetener they wanted, or if they even wanted sweetener to begin with? Or did they just take it black? Therefore, did they regret not putting more milk to their roast?

Are we still even talking about coffee?
 
Yes. Eureka. “More Complete”. Version one leads me to version two.

Got to love coffee.

My Café con Leche, please.
 
Part IV: Versions of Thought (Dos)
Part of the answer. It all starts with the decisions you make.

It has partly to do, with our upbringings, culture, ethnicity, diversity of thought; all of whom are a pawn in the game of decision making. But the decisions we make ultimately affect our outcomes. Actually, it is the Effect of our outcomes.
 
Wait. Time to zarandear. Let's quickly talk about time.

Walking through time, there is a decision made. A seed planted. And we see it grow.

Whether it grows to be “more” or “less” complete, we are still walking or running through time.
 
Whichever way you measure it, or if you even do measure time, we see our decisions “andar por el tiempo” or walk through time. And that causes us to maybe, just maybe, ask us if we want to be “more complete”.

Oh no, time to go to the next version of thought, because version two is not giving the answers. Just more questions. 

My Café con Leche, please.

Part V: Versions of Thought (Tres)
Version 3. Before we continue, let us “recapitular”, which in Spanish means recapitulate.

In a few sentences, this couple seems to have love. They seem to be happy. They were in workout apparel and seemed that they finish a jog, so they appeared healthy. Moreover, they were holding their own cup of coffee and eating breakfast.
 
What in the world is missing, that is making them say they want to be “more complete”? What is “more” to them?

What is the answer?
 
You know, when in University, and if you were to take a loan, you have the following stages. “In School”, meaning you are in a going to class phase. In this phase, the amount you take seems so immaterial, because you are trying to achieve your goal of graduation.
 
Then you have “In Grace”, which is once you are done with school. You feel like you can rule the world. And with reason, because that accomplishment and privilege of finishing school is not easy. It required work. And challenging work to that. And with that demanding work, you are given a honeymoon retreat of about six months, until you must make your first payment.
 
Then you are in “In Repayment”. This stage is where you must pay your money back. In full installments. This is where your goal, needs to materialize, and you now need to work even harder, to help pay for your schooling.

So, have this couple reached their “In Repayment” phase in life, where they want to get “more” in life?

To be “more complete”?

“More Complete” with life in general?
 
Then it hit me. The answer.

And in my native tongue, I jump and say “Bueno, todo esto manda leches”. And although leche means milk, in this case, it does not mean the milk I put in my coffee.

But in this sense, leche is both a happy thing and a sad thing. It is admiration and consternation. It is the answer. It is the answer!
 
And then I realized, that the answer is a question. That the answer for me is good, because I know I have what completes me.

And it saddens me because the couple, that we are talking about, failed to attain the spark that prohibits them from feeling “more complete”.
 
And, to decrypt the message, humans must realize that life will forever be riddled with questions.   

That life is a cycle of questions. And that answers are relative.

My Café con Leche, please.
 
Part VI: Versions of Thought (Four)
I may have lost you. Did I?
 
Oh yeah right.

So, what is the answer?
 
Let’s enter my last version, being 4, of my thinking. When I heard this, again, I went into my 4th layer of analysis.

Remember, how my wife was 99.9% always right about my obsession of going four levels deep? 
 
But this time, I found that version four, was what I was looking for. In this fourth version, is where I now found my answer. Their “more”, is different than my “more”.

For what they want in life, I may already have. And vice versa.
 
World.

I once wrote and shared about my secret to life. And how I am always happy.

And that is knowing how to love, be humble, hungry for doing the right thing, and having a positive attitude. But the way people get to their secret is relative.

Although, it may be a cliché, but life is relative.

My Café con Leche, please.

Part VII: Conclusion
No more “Zarandeo”.

No more “Zarandear”.

Answering a question, with another question, got me to my answer.
 
But Why?
 
Because, life is relative. And I truly found this out by “azar”.
 
One of my favorite authors, once wrote, “Cada uno tiene su modo de gastar alfileres”. Taking the literal meaning aside, it talks about perspective. How people choose how they wish to spend their resources.
 
It poses questions like: What is your perspective? What is mine?
 
Only the individual can answer it.

I know the “more” I want in my life is to give the love my wife and I share with our family, friends, and people we know, back to the world. And let it grow exponentially. That is why we spend our “alfileres” (using the term pin-needles to be synonymous with our resources) on things that revolve around our ambition.
 
Our mission to empower happiness.

Maybe, just maybe, that couple was talking about the same thing. I will never know. But this then brings hope. And hope is always welcomed. Because after all, things are relative. We truly are.

My Café con Leche, please.
 
Cheers Mundo.