Introduction

This is a collection of interviews, pictures, and musings on the atmosphere and physical space, representing the ethics behind Analog coffee shop. This collection centres around the basic ethical question, “How should we live?” and further, “What values should we live by?” The interviewees -all regulars or baristas- answer the question, “What is the most important guiding principle or value or rule of your life? Why?” With these interviews, pictures, and musings we can determine the principles Analog represents.

Randy Greco

“Let go and let God. Get out of God’s way in leading your life. There’s really nothing more to say… *sings* ‘Let your soul be your pilot. Let your soul guide you all the way.’ That was by what’s-his-name? He played with The Police. Sting. That’s a Sting song.”

 

Alex

“Let it be.”

Neil Goldstone

“One of the many tenants that I like to live my life by is this quote from a book I read many years ago, by Napoleon Hill or possibly Dale Carnegie. I apologize that I do not know exactly which author it was. The quote goes something like this: “Seek first to understand and then, and only then, seek to be understood!” In other words; allow your counterparts to say fully what they plan to say and allow them time to explain themselves, before you jump in to express your own opinions, and comments on the said subject. By doing this more often than I used to, it has saved me much potential embarrassment, by speaking too soon and without knowing all the facts of my counterpart.”

Source: http://nexthome.yp.ca/news/things-to-do-in-calgary-the-citys-hidden-gems/93563/

 

 

From the busting environment of Analog, where seats are filled from nine in the morning until eleven at night, you can tell this is a popular spot for solitary study and work, business meetings, social conversations, or catching up with friends. The constant hum of conversation clashes with the blaring music, playing anything from a selection of underground indie tunes to trashy early 2000s pop music, creating a cacophony of noise. There are always regulars; in the morning, the daily 9-5 employees drop in for coffee and go, but the regulars that sit in Analog give it the authenticity. In the early hours before the morning coffee grind begins, a mixed band of individuals without much interaction outside the coffee shop, all separated by a decade of age discuss a range of topics. There’s a chance you’ll have a constructive conversation with a stranger about the book you’re reading, or a similar idiosyncrasy. Sometimes, you’ll see a band of local artists, all males with dark hair and an interesting choice in facial hair styles. The afternoons usually have a group of old-timers, nostalgically remembering the good days. The baristas and customers know each other by name and story, and there’s a chance you get a free coffee if anything goes wrong.

David Brunning

“I think 100% idealistically it’s love, at the foundation. But I think it’s covered up and encased in so many other things. So I think to get to that principle, or that place, you have to uncover a lot of other things. So you have to remove doubt, you have to remove fear, you have to remove expectation. There’s a lot more things that you have to remove, and I think that’s a process that happens over time… And love what I mean by love is not like a romantic type of love or an érōs love. That’s part of love but it’d be more like a agápē love, like a love from God, a love that is unconditional, that’s pure, that finds no fault. That is, in its purest form the greatest thing ever. And so that, I would say touching into that or coming into contact with that or living out of that is the greatest, and definitely something I would strive to know or be close to, and I think that takes a lifetime. It’s already taken over 35, 36 years… this what’s interesting when you’re a child, and you’re never guaranteed what you’re born into, but when you’re a child, and you’re born if the circumstances you’re born into is healthy- which doesn’t happen for many in our world…

If you’re born into a healthy environment, or you’re born into a situation where the child can just be free, and enjoy the presence of others. You’ll see like children on the playground: it doesn’t matter what colour of skin, doesn’t matter what socio-economic background, it doesn’t matter how much money their parents have, what car their parents drive, it doesn’t matter what kind of clothes they have on. If you watch kids, unaffected by the jaded adults that raise them, or the racist adults that raise them or by the affluent, or superficial parents that raise them. If you just watch kids and you put kids alone, for the most part, 80% of the time the kids will get along. We’re all born in this brokenness so we all have a tendency to be selfish, and what not. Always find difference. But, there’s a lot of love, there’s a lot of acceptance.

And I was thinking about this the other day with down-syndrome people. Those with what we call a “handicap”. That we look down upon. No one wants their kid to be born with down syndrome. You know now, we kinda wanna focus our children- like parents can come together and they can find out if their kids gonna be sick or not. Planned parenthood in the states which is basically glorified abortion in the states is somewhat moving towards the idea that if you’re childs born retarded you can kill it. You know, like they’re moving, it’s pretty bad. I mean that happens and has happened for thousands of years. It’s not new. But, there’s something about the that idea that happen in handicapped children. And by studies like when you look at a down syndrome child, they will like latch onto you and just love you fully. They don’t.. there’s no, they’re just like “I’ll love you fully”. Always. And there’s like this pureness to what they do. And I think that they’re handicap that allows them to see with such a pure sight and with such a connected, loyal, loving ability. I think that handicap that they have physically or mentally is a benefit to them towards love. Whereas our handicap is the inability to love. Or, our handicap is the.. how do you say it? The fact that we love on so many conditions. 

When you’re younger, you fall in love like that *snaps*. You’re just like, “Oh my gosh, I’m feelin all warm and fuzzy and this person makes me feel this way, and they give this for me,” and it’s like the simplest thing. And you go through that a little bit and you get a little older, and you’re heart’s been broken a bit or you have a break up, or you go through… you’ve been cheated, or mistreated by someone else’s actions, and then all of a sudden you tend to bottle up a bit. And you’re no longer able to… even love friends. You don’t trust friends, you know your parents have mislead you, or they’ve- not walked out- they’re actions, they’ve only… you know what I mean? You know what I’m getting at? So as time goes on we get more and more jaded as to what love is. But when I think about, you know if I were to live by something or want to live by something or have someone- something affect me. Or, be at the core of my being that I would live out of, I would want to live out of understanding the love of God, and the unconditional, all-encompassing, pure, good, holy, beautiful, bright love of God. That’s what I’d want to know. And that’s what I’d want to live on.”

The walls are decorated with abstract art, and vintage looking photographs, as well as a long shelf filled with unused records. The “BUY RITE STORE” and “FREE DELIVERY” signs memorialize the convenience store that previously sat on this property.

Alex Doonanco

 “If I were to choose one guiding principle in my life, it would have to be balance. It’s pretty ironic that I choose this, because to be frank, my life has been dominated by jumping from one extreme to the next. It’s just how I function… Though I can attribute all of my success to this mindset, It is also responsible for many of my downturns that people don’t often hear about such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorder. Having experienced all of these extreme ups and downs, I have finally arrived at the conclusion that it’s better for one to find balance in every aspect of their life. Striving to be great rather than ‘the best’, and finding a simple sense of enjoyment in things rather than feeling obligated to love or hate them, to name some examples. Whether I will live this through in the future is a completely different question though.”

Janice Theriault

The most important value that I choose and believe in living my life by is growth and potential. I believe that life stops when you stop moving forward. Nothing in life stays the same, it will always either become worse or becomes better. I could never live a life that isn’t changing or growing, I feel that it would become very dull and boring fast! It’s exhilarating to invest effort in an area that you may have been weak in, and then become strong. It’s confidence building when you overcome a past fear that you may never thought you would beat and you cannot explain the feeling in your heart when a bond between two people deepen. Growth moves you forward, it teaches you, and with persistency changes you everyday. One day you will look in the mirror and be astonished at who you have become.”

Robyn

“My greatest value, and my biggest guiding principle would have to be… My family. I wouldn’t be where I am, who I would be today without the support of my family. And I grew up in like a Christian home, and a Catholic home, and definitely like my faith has a lot to do with that. But, without the love, and like the care of my family then… I… yeah, I wouldn’t be who I am.”