JEFF GAUGER
The first slurp of coffee to slosh the tongue each morning starts a day well. I rise early, brew the coffee, pour a cup and sit for 60 to 90 minutes to read the news.
But it’s that first slurp, sucked in while still at the coffee maker, that summons the most sensation. The bracing jolt of dark roast, never sweetened or cut with milk, is one of the most fulfilling of simple pleasures.
In a pandemic, with our lives robbed of so much experiential variety, simple pleasures count for more. We need them.
Here’s another: Folding into bed at night after cleaning the linens and remaking the bed. I don’t know if the freshly laundered sheets feel different – and better – to the skin, or if knowledge that they’re fresh tricks the mind. A simple pleasure.
Or opening a new tub of margarine or jar of peanut butter and denting the smooth surface with knife or spoon. The act always summons a memory of a childlike delight, prompting a smile. A simple pleasure. So many tiny plea
So many tiny pleasures. What are yours?
Jeff Gauger is a former executive editor of The Shreveport Times who now teaches journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. More at 30SecondRead.com. Send comments, anecdotes, suggestions and brickbats to jeff. gauger08@gmail.com.
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE December 11 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.