The Coffee Grounds Reading

The Coffee Grounds Reading
The question was what made a seven-year old boy doubt his identity. Why did he move out of the house and strip off? Where did he want to go? The journey started but he was afraid it would end abruptly. He started withdrawing himself and moved back home. His feet refused to touch the ground and he had to lie down.

He knew it was the journey which counted, not reaching the destination. But it took too long. That day an old lady was present in their house. She didn’t take her magic eyes off him and he felt uncomfortable. Her eyes sent out rays of light It was as if she saw something in his face. He was sitting in a corner looking out of the window when she approached him and offered a coffee. It was his first coffee, a very small cup with something in it as black as pitch. He didn’t really like it because it tasted extremely bitter and was full of coffee grounds. When he finished she said: I would like to read your cup, I can see what lies ahead. Please turn it upside down.

She said it was the grounds at the bottom of the coffee cup that held clues to his future. Then the coffee reader unraveled a strange story: You don’t belong here. If you stay you won’t survive. Please go. This made him pensive but frightened. How could he leave and where should he go ? But she continued: Don’t stop anywhere more than 12 years. You are not made to stay anywhere for ever because you lost your roots otherwise you would never rest. Keep going to rest.

The reading seemed like a coded message. He believed in the patterns formed and the symbols in the coffee grounds. The interpretation was accurate. They formed a pattern because patterns grouped and gave him a shape. They gave him back his identity. Later he developed different patterns and you could tell at a glance who he was. His patterns kept changing but there was now no coffee with grounds any more and the old lady died. It was time he left but he didn’t.

Jamshid
Bremen, 6 July 2008

Comments
I have a few questions:
What does "strip off" mean? What is meant by "His feet refused to touch the ground and he had to lie down"? What is meant by "Keep going to rest"?
RonBee


Answers
Regarding your questions:
1. What does "strip off" mean?
This is an identity issue. Strip off is metaphorical. He takes off his clothes to become naked. Casting aside or discarding his old identity.

2. What is meant by "His feet refused to touch the ground and he had to lie down"?
He felt the ground (word play coffee grounds) fall from beneath his feet. The bottom (word play: the bottom of the coffee cup) dropped out of his world.

3. What is meant by "Keep going to rest"?
A situation of restlessness or agitation. He can only find peace in going. No rest is ganted until he leaves. This is ironical or at least contradicts with what we are familiar.

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