Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu KawaguchiEvery moment is different.
Some are pleasant and smooth whereas, some prompt us to wish that perhaps we could revisit our past and change something – a hurtful moment, a rejection, an instance where we felt injustice or unfairness, a loss dream, a failure or a disappointment. It could be anything that we may like to change or alter or reprogram, so we won’t have to deal with the experience we’re having in the present moment. But despite our most wholehearted wishes, the cold hard fact is that past is but a shadow. Once a moment passes away, it won’t come again. Even the previous moment is now a long gone wave that crashed and dissolved into the ocean of time. But what if, what if there was indeed a way to travel back in time, even though it may sound strange.
Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi explores this question with the metaphor of a “hot cup of coffee getting cold.” The novel delves into the story of an unusual café where people can order a cup of coffee and take a trip to their past, as long as they’re comfortable with following all the rules. A server pours and fills their cup with hot coffee from a kettle. As the shimmery whiffs of coffee’s steam rise and swirl in the air, the person can visit a specific date and time in their past and once they’re done with what they wished to do, they must return to the present moment before the coffee gets cold.
However, with this metaphor, the book reaffirms the age-old insight that, even if you’re able to visit the past, it “won’t change anything in the present moment.” The only way to be happy and content in the present moment is through acceptance and surrender.
The novel illustrates and repeats this powerful insight by means of four different stories including “The Lovers,” “Mother and Child,” “Husband and Wife,” and “The Sisters.” These stories relate to four people who are among café’s regular customers. They visit their past to meet a loved one and say something they wished they had said but were not able to do, at that time.
The book is a nice little reminder that we can always choose to be happy in this moment, irrespective of our past. I loved the book and I hope you’ll too.
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