The Magic Moxxee Coffee Jar Karma Experiment

Right. Rarely do I post anything that specifically involves the vertical pronoun, “I”. So, can’t help this one much.

If you go to Moxxee Coffee you must know that there are a bunch of coffee superheroes behind the counter, churning out perfect cups to every Charlie West goony bird who figures out what’s going on with the silver goats. I won’t name those coffee superheroes because I don’t know their names. But there they are doing what they do, with great precision. I hope everyone appreciates them as much as I do. If you don’t appreciate them, you need to enlarge your life experience.

When you get drinks there, sometimes they whirl their little iPad around and let you send yourself an email that tells you that you just bought a drink and even what your change was. Put your change into that jar. No matter how much it is. That jar is 100% magic. OK, the other thing that the email does is send you a little electronic punch card with Moxxee stars on it. When you get 10 stars, you’re supposed to get a free drink. Admittedly, I really don’t know exactly how to use the system and I am shy around the superheroes, so sometimes I would knowingly have 10 stars, but not ask for a free cup.

I go there so much and so often, that one day I decided that I would never ask for a free cup of anything, that I would always put my change in the jar and that I would see if anything good would happen.

You have to understand that I can truly say that I go to Moxxee at least once every day except Saturday and Sunday and on Saturday and Sunday I think about going there.

So, I am putting a good amount of change in that jar, and I am not asking for my free coffee, on purpose to try an experiment, a karma experiment.

NOTE: We only use words like “Karma” to make reference to an unknown force that some people believe gives back to them whatever they put into it. I am only using the word for lack of another immediately recognizable word.

What happened?

The first thing that happened was that I found $10 (two five dollar bills) on the parking lot outside of Moxxee. Sorry to whoever lost that, I gave $5 to a friend because that’s what you’re supposed to do when you find money. I took it as a sign that I should continue the experiment.

Next, one morning, when I went there super early because I couldn’t sleep the night before, one of the Moxxee superheroes gave me a free brownie. I could not determine the reason, but, hey, why question free brownies?

Then, on another day, one of the superheroes was filling my order and said, “This doesn’t smell like Burundi” – which was the coffee I ordered. He gave me that coffee for free (whatever it was) and made me my regular order. So, I went away with two for the price of one.

Now, all that happened fairly quickly, and then there was a lull in the events. But, my faith was galvanized, so I kept on putting money in the magic jar.

Then, just a few months ago, one of my co-workers found an injured kitten in his neighborhood. Injured. Kitten. Ah, my heart. He brought this little critter to my office and I looked at her (and smelled her) and knew she had to go straight to the vet. She had some kind of massive wound that ran from the left side of her face all the way to her chest. My office mate nicknamed her “9”.

9 went to our vet. I dropped her off and got a call that night. She needed immediate stitching, debriding, wounds were septic, she could have FIV, you know a bad scenario. Knowing full well that the repair of this busted up little kitty could quickly move to over a thousand, I did something dumb and right. I told the doctor to do whatever needed to be done.

My wife and I visited 9 and kept folks apprised of her rapid recovery on Facebook and Twitter. She looked on most days like franken-kitty, stitched up, with a wound in her cheek so deep that they thought she would lose an eye.

We boarded 9 for three weeks, the initial surgery-fixer-up and long term care cost just a bit over $800.

Without asking for it. WITHOUT asking anyone. People all around me stepped forward and donated cash for more than 75% of those bills. I was handed cash, mailed checks, and found anonymous envelopes on my desk at work. THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE! It matters so much to me, to my wife, and especially to little 9 (kitty cat smiley face emoticon here).

9 got better and better and better and better and purred and purred and purred each time we went to see her.

What’s more than that, a vet tech at our vet fell in love with 9 while caring for her and took her home to care for her. What better owner for a special needs kitty?

This is why I am telling you that you must put money in the magic Moxxee jar.

Please experiment with life by putting good things into it, instead of trying to take good things out of it. If you put good things into it, you may get a huge happy surprise!

You may discover that there is a force that gives back good things to you when you give or do good things to others. You may wonder what that force may be. You may already know. TRY THE EXPERIMENT!

I don’t really think it’s the jar, by the way, but you should tip those guys and gals back there regardless, they are making the best coffee in the world, after all.