Gratitude and Commerce

The Cafe

The place is totally California.  There are 15 Cafe Gratitudes around the Bay Area.  

They celebrate the abundance of life -- in their own way.  Here's the description from the Cafe's home page: "Café Gratitude is our expression of a world of plenty. Our food and people are a celebration of our aliveness. We select the finest organic ingredients to honor the earth and ourselves, as we are one and the same. We support local farmers, sustainable agriculture and environmentally friendly products. Our food is prepared with love. We invite you to step inside and enjoy being someone that chooses: loving your life, adoring yourself, accepting the world, being generous and grateful every day, and experiencing being provided for. Have fun and enjoy being nourished."

Sounds good, doesn't it?  How could you be against these things?

A Natural Lunch

What about the food?  After all, the cafe is a restaurant.  Dishes are labeled with "gratitude" names -- I am blessed, I am blissful, I am joyous, etc.  The food is made not merely from organic products but from natural products -- I think that means food that has not gone through any processing.

I was invited to Cafe Gratitude in Healdsburg, CA, for a belated birthday lunch.  The atmosphere was gentle -- long, natural tables for shared seating, signs proclaiming gratitude on the walls, and best of all warm, welcoming staff who feel blessed they work there.

I had some trouble choosing from the menu.  The dishes were mostly made from raw products.  It was a cold, rainy day but there was only one hot thing on the menu -- a bowl of broccoli soup.  Since my friend ordered the soup, I tried a dish made with raw rice from Bhutan and kale.  I managed to eat half of it before I gave up.  My friend's curried raw rice dish was a bit tastier.  I wasn't tempted by dessert at the cafe (no sugar around), but I did enjoy a complimentary taste of almond milk and apricots offered by our waiter.  I wouldn't eat there again but it was an experience.

Selling Gratitude

Unfortunately, what has struck me more than anything about Cafe Gratitude is how gratitude has been bound up with commercialism.  At the cafe, you could play or buy a gratitude board game, raw food products, a cook book, "happy" trinkets.  On the web site, you can find gratitude events, workshops, a store, catering service, even an Open Mike night in San Rafael.

This diffusion of "abundance" through commerce turns me off.  To me, gratitude should be based on simplicity, not food supplements.  I don't think we can learn gratitude through books or repetition of blessings.  I agree with the idea of  "loving your life, adoring yourself, accepting the world, being generous and grateful every day, and experiencing being provided for."   I also agree we should treasure healthy meals.  BUT I don't think we need to make a community, network, business out of it.  Most of the time I'm grateful for quiet, privacy, contemplation, moderation, simplicity.  And, from time to time, I'm also grateful for sauces, alcohol, and sweets. 

For me, gratitude is not a New Age mantra.  It's simply a matter of counting my blessings -- without wearing them on a tee shirt.  How old-fashioned can you get?