Pick A Side

Image you and I are standing together outside a coffee shop. Each of us is holding a coffee, you have a plain hot coffee with sugar and cream, and I have an iced coffee with Splenda and cream.

My coffee is in a clear container; you can see it's a light tan color from the cream. You can't tell how sweet it is, but you can see that it has a lot of cream.

I can only tell from your cup that you got a hot drink. You have put a drink sleeve on the cup, and since your cup is paper, I know it isn't a cold drink.

The coffee shop always puts the hot coffee in paper cups and the cold coffee in plastic cups. So I know what you are drinking is hot.

Standing there with our coffees talking, we look like we are on the same side. We are both drinking coffee outside the coffee shop, so you know from looking at us that we both like to go to the same place.

You also look at us, see how we talk and know we are friends. So we must have some things in common besides both liking the same coffee place.

You walk up to us and offer us an experiment.

We both stop talking and look at you, waiting for you to explain. We are both annoyed that you interrupted us, but we are still curious about the experiment.

"I want to see how you act if I split you up," he says.

I'm curious about what he means, so I nod and say, "sure."

"Great," he says.

He looks at mean and says you are on side A, and your friend is on side B.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"I've just moved you to sides," he says.

"Great," I say.

My friend asks, "what does side B mean?"

The man thinks for a second and says, "it means you only like hot coffee, and you have to try to convince your friend that hot coffee is better."

"Does it mean that I like iced coffee?" I ask.

"You don't have to, but you do not like hot coffee," he says.

"That won't be hard. I don't like hot coffee," I say.

Just like that, my friend and I are on different sides of the coffee issue.

It didn't take much to get us onto different sides. Just this man separating us was enough.

Now I started to think about ways to prove that hot coffee was not as good as iced coffee. I know he said I didn't have to like iced coffee, but it seemed to make sense that if my friend enjoyed hot coffee, I should have something to take its place.

It's amazon how quickly we took sides. I'm not sure why it's something people can do so easily. The man has taken two friends, and now we will start arguing.

Each of us is hoping to be right. Even though this has no correct answer, in reality, there is no way to decide which coffee is better. Iced coffee might be better on a hot day, but there are likely some people that still drink a hot cup of coffee in the morning, even during the hottest days of summer.

I'm still thinking of ways to be right.

I'm sure my friend is doing the same thing. He wants to get me to believe that hot coffee is the way to go. It is better for you, he might say. I'm not sure of the reasons he will give, since I prefer iced coffee, but he will have some.

I wonder why people are like this. Is there a benefit to debating everything to decide which is better?

There has to be a reason people are always ready to debate things and try to figure out what's the best way to do something.

I think the problem is that there are people that are unwilling to listen to what the other side is saying. They don't take that moment to decide what is really the best way. They are stuck on their side.

Even in this coffee argument, I think that I am right. I don't like hot coffee. It burns your tongue, and it takes too long to drink.

Maybe slowing down and enjoying your drink is a good thing? Take a moment and hold your cup in your hands and let it warm your hands as it cools. Then when it's cool enough, take a sip and enjoy the flavor of the coffee.

If you paid for the high-end coffee beans, maybe the heat brings something out in the flavor that is not there in the cold.

Is it possible I've been wrong all this time? Could warm coffee be better than cold coffee?

I know that sometimes when you put ice into hot coffee, it can make the coffee more bitter. So I add some extra Splenda or maybe a little more cream.

I should try drinking a warm coffee. Not hot, but warm might not be a bad idea. Even in the summer, the morning can have a little chill to it.

I remember camping and drinking some warm coffee out of a metal cup. There is something comforting in that memory. The cold of the forest and the quiet of the morning with the warm cup of coffee in my hands.

I had wanted an iced coffee, but we didn't have any ice, and when they offered me the warm cup of coffee in the metal cup, I took it and sat down in the soft camping chair, and there was something special at that moment.

Just taking a few seconds to think about that makes me happy. If I had refused the warm coffee, I would not have that memory. I would not want to have a warm cup of coffee.

I look at my friend and say, "I'm going to go get a cup of warm coffee."

"It's the better choice," he says.

I go inside and order a cup of hot coffee. They bring it to me, and I hold it in both hands. I add cream and two packets of Splenda to it and take a sip.

It burns my tongue, and I wonder why I didn't just get a second iced coffee. What the heck was I thinking? This isn't the forest, and I'm not sitting in a canvas chair.

I go outside the cafe and look at my friend and the man that put us on different sides of this issue. "I'm sticking with iced coffee. Did one of you want this?" I asked, holding out the cup of hot coffee.

My friend takes it and says "thanks" as I turn to go back to the cafe to get a cup of iced coffee.