I rarely drink coffee—about a cup per decade, maybe.

Partly I don’t drink it because I see how dependent people get on it, and how much they spend. Partly because the caffeine affects me so much. I drink it to stay awake only when I consider the reasons I was up late and had to get up early worthy. Otherwise I don’t drink it since I don’t want to reward myself for doing unworthy things with the happiness the caffeine produces.

But those are superficial reasons.

When I was a kid, the grown-ups said that only grown-ups could drink coffee, not kids.

A rule that only grown-ups could drink coffee meant that drinking it meant you were a grown-up. It didn’t mean not drinking coffee meant you were still a kid, but at least you had a chance.

So by not drinking coffee, I have a chance at retaining that youthful characteristic. I know a rule existing doesn’t make reality follow it, but I still think about it when declining coffee. I think of it as fun. Plus I learn to avoid the need to stay up late.

As I grew up and saw most people start drinking coffee, I lost many people to adulthood.

The Little Prince and staying young at heart

Little Prince readers will recognize this modest litmus test from the narrator’s and the Prince’s in the book, as illustrated here:

And here:

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