Bento Wiz is Dead

What's on Your Mug?

Bento Wiz is Dead.

My beloved has decided to transform herself with a healthy diet. How many photographs can you take of quinoa? None. Zero.

It comes at a perfect time. My seemingly disparate activities are starting to merge into one whole thing, something I can finally sink my teeth into.

There are thirty of you following along here, and about 60% read Bento Wiz on a daily basis. There is value in those numbers. So there is value in Bento Wiz.

I have just completed a serial story you are probably familiar with: Varhaus. I intend to novelize it. But there is much more. I intend to take a story about an artist and a building and make it a real thing: an actual artist in an actual building, operating under an unbreakable philosophy, creating value where there was only mortgages, roof maintenance and insurance.

You’re familiar with me, so you know the philosophy. Romans 12:2. Go to Heaven. Do simple commerce. Show people they are not trapped. This whole idea is encapsulated in the story by a coffee mug, that is, by serving the message through the hospitality of sharing coffee. Not preaching. Practicing.

So next week, your Bento Wiz email will arrive with a new name:

What’s On Your Mug?...Coffee with Varhaus.

A similar format to Bento Wiz, but a different aim. A verse. A quote. Weekly themes. Some art. Sometimes food. A bit of what’s on my mind. But the real aim is this.

What’s on your mug?

Did you ever look at a coworker’s coffee and think...her face doesn’t match her ‘world’s greatest mom’ mug. Or maybe it says Cafe du Monde like mine does, reminding me of my wife’s and my favorite place. Is your mug aspirational? Is it fond memory? Maybe you just like the color. I bet your Monday mug isn’t the same as your Saturday mug.

Does message printed on your mug match your face? I want it to. I know for certain that you do 100 wonderful things every day without thinking about it.

I want to hear you say it. Other people need to hear you say it, too. The world is dying of digital comparison. “Comparison is the Thief of Joy.”

What if sharing joy was the thief of comparison? What could happen if we act as a counterbalance? Not a snapshot Narnia, but a real living celebration of humanity and good deeds?

Brag! I want you to tell me how you practiced simple commerce, how you did something to mark in your Heaven Credit Column, how you showed someone that they are not trapped by the things that keep them from feeling free or alone.

I want to know if the ideas I have assembled together are applicable to this life for others.

Blow your own horn. Or toot someone else’s flute. Especially the little actions. A thousand little kindnesses, small honesties extended with the grace of the statement:

Would you like to have some coffee?

The world needs to see these things in print. I know that I cannot build Varhaus, the story, the novel, or the actual facility, without your help.

Your participation will do us both good, plus it may be just enough proof to convince others to come along with us…for a cup of coffee.