I don’t believe in travel mugs.

Don’t get me wrong, I love coffee. The taste of coffee is more pleasing than any food, and the caffeine in coffee is more beneficial than a full night’s sleep. I just can’t dig the travel mug.

The  point of a travel mug is to free the coffee drinker from the house or neighborhood coffee shop. The handy sippy-cup lid prevents the beverage from sloshing out of the cup during transit, and the insulated cup has been keeping hands cool and coffee hot for years. It’s a great invention – it might even be the best since sliced bread. But the principle of the travel mug is what bothers me.

Its existence proves that the world has become a place that can’t rest. The death of the front porch and the constant link to work provided by smart phones marks the passing of leisure. People feel a need to get ahead – to get somewhere. The travel mug facilitates that desire.

A cup of coffee with a book, a friend or just your own thoughts can provide an instant break. It gives the drinker a 15-minute window to enjoy life. People don’t have time to enjoy life, because they are too busy making it better. I often fall into the mindset that I need to concentrate all of my time on improving my life, whether that means improving my grades, finding a career or figuring out how I will eventually make enough money to live on.

Coffee is meant to bring joy to peoples’ lives. It is the perfect breakfast companion, a reason to sit down with friends in the afternoon or a great way cultivate relationships with professionals that we all hope will us lead to that first job after college.

But like many of life’s pleasures, it has been soiled by a need to get there. ‘There’ might not be all it’s cracked up to be, so just take some time and enjoy what’s here.

Just stop. Take a moment and a cup of coffee to think about things. Stop and ponder, muse, reflect – whatever you want to call it – over a stationary cup of coffee.