our own worst enemies?

we've all been seeing the slow creation and growth of a true professional coffee community here in North America. we've all been witnessing the tentative contacts we've begun with European and other world communities like ours.
it's been incredibly cool and heartening to see all this happen.
i love going to some event (house party, barista jam, coffee cupping, trade show, whatever) and seeing the developing connections, relationships and friendships.
it all gives me hope.

so it's particularly painful when i witness behavior counter to this positive development. it's hard to see old, paranoid and competitive mindsets in action. it's unpleasant to witness petty back-biting and whisper campaigns and slander.

i honestly believe that, if the quality-focused coffee businesses want to not only get ahead but survive in this market, we need to co-operate. if one of us wins we all win. really. i mean, good-natured competition like you see at some barista jams or in CoE auctions or the like is one thing. but once it breaks down into cliquishness and nastiness and rumour-mongering and trying to actually do damage to eachother and our businesses it's just no good. i mean, we're facing an uphill battle against ignorance and miseducation and enormous, well funded, branding and marketing machines of companies.

we need to pull together if we want to push this forward.
seriously.


on a personal note... i just got back from the doctor and it was mostly good news but there was some bad news.

i've now got a stylish black cast (good news) but it's not a load-bearing cast (bad news). i'm not going to be able to put any weight on the foot for at least the next month (bad news). the break didn't get any worse since last week, looks just the same in fact (good news). they still feel that surgery is not the best option (good news). i do, unfortunately, have some ligament damage as well (bad news). the conclusion is that this doesn't require surgery either (good news). as a result of the ligament damage, the hope is that they'll be able to take the cast off in 4 weeks and put me in an orthopedic boot so that I can start physical therapy (good news). this, however, depends on how the bones heal in the next 4 weeks. if it's not healed enough, they'll put another cast back on for 2-4 weeks (bad news).

i'm actually feeling kind of positive about the whole thing right now.