New York, The Gulf, St. Germain

The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things they most wanted in life. If any item on the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness. Better to live a life of single-pointed focus, he taught… [But] I wanted worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence—the dual glories of human life. I wanted what the Greeks call kalos kai agathos, the singular balance of the good and the beautiful.                                                                          ~Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Great beauty and goodness and divinity exist on the crowded Broadway sidewalks, in the sugar sands of the Gulf, within the gold and perfume and polish of the boutiques in the quartier St. Germain. I know this, I know this. But what about the Magic Blend? Please, Lord, tell me it’s just as attainable as that over-priced bag of beans at “Starbucks…”