This week I spent a couple of nights in a Residence Inn by Marriott. Apparently there are over 600 Residence Inn properties.

My studio room was pleasant. Plenty of space, lots of drawers, a kitchen, even a fireplace. Morning coffee was available in room by means of a full coffee maker (not one of those hotel one-paper-cup-at-a-time coffee makers but a real coffee maker) or by going to the full continental breakfast. And at the continental breakfast there was a waffle iron with waffle mix.

Coffee is ubiquitous. I expect that wherever life leads me I will be able to find coffee there. And though there are issues of fair trade and sustainability and addiction to wrestle through, the one thing I never wonder when I drink coffee is, What is this? If there were six hundred million Residence Inn properties in the world, no matter where it was, if I stayed at one I would be sure the coffee I drank in the morning was made of water poured over grinded up coffee beans.

But what is waffle mix? Where does it come from? How is it transported to 600 Residence Inn properties each week?

Most astonishingly, how is it that thousands of travelers stumble bleary eyed to a Residence Inn continental breakfast each morning and perk up when they see a small vat of light-brown sludge next to a hot waffle iron without wondering, Where did this waffle mix come from and what the hell is it?

Like it or not, we are people of optimism and faith.