Milk in the Morning

I drink milk in the morning. To be precise I drink a cafe au lait in the morning. If I have leftover coffee in the coffee maker, I pour half a cup of this and half a cup of milk, heat in the microwave and voila! If I have no coffee, it's a full cup of milk heated, and then a spoonful of instant coffee stirred in. Quick, tasty, doesn't aggravate the sensitive stomach first thing in the morning. It's my routine. Can be poured into a travel mug for a quick getaway, with a pre-packaged granola bar or two. Breakfast on the run.  
In 2012 we get our milk in plastic bags. It is the least-expensive way to buy milk at the grocery store. Four liters of milk are packed into three clear, rectangular plastic milk bags. Then three bags are packed into a larger bag that has all of the manufacturer's advertising and information printed on it. There is some coordination of a colour-coding scheme amongst manufacturers. Pale blue usually means skim milk which has 0% fat content, red is whole milk over 3% fat content that is homogenized (which means stirred into homogeneity or sameness), purple is 1%, dark blue is 2%. . . you get the idea.  
Recently, the dairy manufacturers have been marketing a more expensive milk called filtered milk. It is supposed to taste better and is processed differently, well it is heat pasteurized same as regular milk but then it is filtered. Apparently this improves the taste and makes it cost almost twice as much.  As an example, four liters of regular milk retails for something like $4.39 whereas the same volume of filtered milk can be over seven dollars. To differentiate the filtered milk once you get it home, the manufacturers have started putting this more expensive milk into clear, blue plastic bags. Personally, I am hard pressed to tell the difference in taste except that the skim milk does seem a bit less thin and watery. 
At any rate the filtered milk was on sale this week for four dollars so I grabbed a bag of it and put it in the upstairs bar fridge until I needed it. Which was this morning. So, being out of milk first thing Sunday morning, I walked upstairs in slippers and housecoat to get a clear blue bag of filtered skim milk for my cafe au lait. Downstairs in the kitchen again, I put the bag in my rigid plastic milk-bag jug which is cleverly disguised as a Holstein cow, as someone has painted black markings on its white milk-jug body. Sadly, the cow has a very stumpy tail as I once dropped the milk jug and snapped its handle off. It fits better into my fridge this way, I rationalize to myself in order to keep this broken object about the house. 
I get the kitchen scissors and nip a corner off the clear blue bag of milk. Try to pour it into my cup. Nothing. I look closer with bleary morning vision. Well, that's just typical. I nipped off the wrong corner, the corner closest to the stumpy handle. Makes it hard to pour. Now comes the job of pulling out the milk bag that now leaks from a hole I cut in the top corner, flipping it around, and coaxing it back into the container without squeezing all the milk out the hole. Aah, cafe au lait.  
Quick. Think of all the beings you should be thanking for bringing this milk to your table. This meal arises from the labour of all beings, may we remember their offering. The cows whose pooled milk went into my cup. Their calves. The bulls who provided the sperm donation for the cows to get pregnant and produce milk. Many dairymen and dairywomen who looked after the cows and those before them who took care of all the domesticated bovine ancestors. The agricultural engineers who designed the dairy barn and all it's equipment. The farm owner and their employees. The person who grows the feed. The veterinarian, and the veterinary college. The truck drivers, motor vehicle repair people, warehouse workers, tire manufacturers, rubber tree growers, and foundry workers. The milk manufacturers, Dairy Board members, sales agents, and the artists who design the packaging and advertising. Grocery store managers, their employees, accountants, lawyers, investors, family and friends. People who repair the roads, fix refrigeration units, sell rigid plastic jugs, make plastics. Synthetic chemists who developed the plastics, Hydro power workers who give us electricity, refinery workers for the fuel, tool pushes to keep the oil wells welling and battery operators for keeping the pump jacks pumping. Leaf cutter bees for pollinating the alfalfa. You get the picture.  Thanks to all beings for my cafe au lait this morning. And I never even got to thinking about the coffee.