I had hoped to attach this little post onto my last blog but things looked like they were getting a little long, so I decided to make it a separate post. You may have heard the story about the Starbucks Guy that wrote a song, and then got fired. If not, those posts will take you to the song and stories about it. As a fellow Starbucks barista I can’t help but laugh along with him; I can’t help but agree with him. In one of the stories the guy admits that he loved working at Starbucks and even the customers, but was just blowing off some steam in hopes of bringing a little comedic relief for other baristas; he was singing of things that we only would know.
There is an interesting schism between barista and customer, two worlds that intersect over coffee; there are the baristas that are working in the world behind the counter, and the customer living in the world in front of the counter. Unless you have worked in any sort of food business or retail, it is very hard to catch onto what might actually be going on behind the counter, to see the stress, the problems, the hold-ups. Especially since most customers see only a few minutes of what is going on, and not the hourly workings; it is easy to complain about coffee running out, or the 5 minute long wait when you haven’t seen the hundreds of other customers before you wanting the same thing. American consumerism has placed each customer in a world of his or her own, taking them out of a world inhabited by other people, doing things that may hamper what he or she wants.
So in the end, do I agree with Chris Cristwell? Do I endorse his song? In the sense that it was meant only for other baristas, I have to say I endorse it. I and other baristas have heard the song and find ourselves agreeing with him; it is almost like he works with us. And yet I am not drawn to agree whole heartedly with him for two reasons: Exclusion & Embrace, by Miroslav Volf, and the source of the pun in my title, Rant, by Chuck Palahniuk.
First off, Rant:
The story of Rant, if you have never read it, is an interesting retelling of Rant’s, the main character, life. Palahniuk does a really cool job of revealing the story of Rant through other people, and throwing in tidbits of other information that you would expect from actual individuals telling the story of someone else. I must warn you if you are interested in reading it that the book is for more mature audiences. But something he does through out the book is to place a small sun or moon next to each person’s name. You don’t find out the real reason for this later in the book, and I hope I don’t reveal too much, but the two symbols come to represent two different worlds, if you will. The sun and the moon never exist in the same world, at the same time, but instead each group develops their own culture, activities, concept of identity. They have learned to exist in their own place, to be a people outside of the other.
I don’t think there is much of a jump here between barista and customer, between employee and employer.
Cristwell is describing the world he inhabits, the culture of the barista that is separated from the consumer. And as well the culture that is separated from the corporate employer. I see why Starbucks fired Cristwell, but I am also saddened by it because Cristwell is often the voice of many other baristas, and they are not listened to. As I said, many of us at my own store understood what he was saying; he put our thoughts to word and song.
And many other friends, in jobs differing from Starbucks barista, have felt this same cry; this isn’t exclusive to baristas. Restaurant wait staff, fast food workers, book store cashiers, clothing store workers, the list goes on, have struggled against the collision between serving and being waited on. A friend of mine, Austin Freese, has endorsed the idea that everyone should at some point in their life work in a restaurant so they will learn to be nicer to the wait staff. My own wife wishes everyone worked in a clothing store once so that we would learn not to just throw clothes around.
But, I digress, because I’m not here to just complain about customers. Many others have done that. I’m here to discuss Exclusion & Embrace, a “theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation” (Volf).
In his book Volf discusses, ultimately, the two choices we undertake in our daily confrontation with others. We either exclude them, defining our identity and culture on our own, never allowing the other any say in our lives, or we open our arms, extending them to the other, making room for the other person in our lives. This is probably the biggest, most important description of how we should deal with other, the risk of opening ourselves and allowing the other person to have room in our lives, to have a say in what we do, to allow ourselves to be shaped by them, for this is the very same thing that the triune God has done; though he was perfect in his own communion, he nonetheless opened himself on the cross, embracing humanity and allowing them to be a part of his identity.
So how does this play into Cristwell’s song, and the whole situation of barista and consumer? Ultimately Cristwell’s song is meaningless if the other does not listen to what he has to say. But Cristwell’s song is also meaningless if he himself, and baristas feeling the same, do not respond to the embrace of the consumer. When Cristwell wrote his song, and when baristas complain, it can be an opening, a call for others to respond and embrace the other, to listen to his cries and seek reconciliation for all parties, consumer, employee, and employer. And yet Cristwell and others must be willing to embrace as well. For if reconciliation is not sought out, Cristwell’s song does not become open arms of an embrace, but instead the dagger held close to attack.
Often complaining is not a cry for embrace, for understanding, but just an attack from the underdog. But in situations like this both parties should not seek to inhabit their own worlds, to create their own cultures, but to embrace one another, to understand each other, to end the exclusion of one from the other. And as Volf said, we must risk embrace knowing that sometimes we can be attacked when in this vulnerable state, but we do it because it has been done to us.
On a last note, if Cristwell’s song was an opening for embrace, and even if it wasn’t, I am saddened that he was fired, for it means he wasn’t listened to. It would seem his employers sought to exclude Cristwell from their sense of identity, to quiet his voice rather than to make room for his criticism. But maybe Cristwell will help continue the case for those working in customer service. Or maybe all parties will continue to exclude the other.
Cameron
