In this monologue, the speaker—a self‑identified futurist— recounts two contrasting restaurant experiences to illustrate a broader point about how predictable, safe routines can serve as a foundation for creativity and effective future‑oriented thinking. The first story describes a visit to a local Malaysian eatery where language barriers and cultural unfamiliarity create uncertainty; the staff eventually communicate through pictures and a shared love of Coke, resulting in a successful but ambiguous meal. The second story details a long‑standing, routine breakfast at a Wimpy in Gordon’s Bay, South Africa, where the speaker and her husband are known by name, have a favorite seat, and receive their customary order without having to ask. While the routine might seem boring, the speaker argues that this comfort and predictability provide the mental space needed to engage in creative pursuits and to respond to the fast‑changing, complex challenges of the modern world. She urges listeners to cultivate a safe, reliable “home base” that can be retreated to, enabling them to face future uncertainties with energy, anticipation, and excitement rather than constant threat.
Chapters
This is a tale of 2 restaurants. A few years ago, my husband and I were visiting Malaysia, where we are at the moment, and we had gone to all the regular restaurants and we decided we wanted to try something local. So early one evening, we went to the street where there are a whole lot of local restaurants and we found one, walked inside, sat down. The waitstaff came and brought us a menu, and of course it was all in Malay. So the waiter is kind of hovering, and I'm trying to ask him questions, and he doesn't understand English, and we've got no idea about Malay at all. So he kind of backs off nervously and pushes somebody else forward. So another waiter comes forward and tries to engage, gives up on the English, backs away. There's a line of waitstaff there staring at us. They try one more time, and then they call for someone, and an older lady comes out. So I— Ah. obviously the owner, or at least in charge. So she comes to these foreigners in her restaurant, and obviously we're not able to communicate. So she takes me outside, and above the restaurant are pictures of the various dishes. And so we point, and like, one is a fish and one is a chicken, and eventually we choose something. And as we go in, I say, and Coke, and her face lights up. Everybody's face lights up. Everybody knows what Coke is. So we had 2 Cokes and 2 really delicious meals, although I'm not entirely sure what we ate. The other restaurant story is back home in Cape Town. About twice a month, my husband and I would go down to Gordon's Bay and go to the Wimpy there for breakfast. Just across the road was a car boot sale at the Gordon's Bay Bowling Club parking space, and we'd wander around there and find odds and ends. And after a while, we recognized the, the various stall owners, and we have conversations, and we know their names, and we greet and we buy odds and ends that we're going to take home and craft into something for the fun of it and for the creative juices. But after we've done that, we go across the road to Wimpy. And we were such regulars that we would walk in and greet the staff and greet Judith, the manager, and find one of our 2 favorite seats and sit down. And the staff would bring us our food. And it was always our regular breakfast done a particular way with our tea and cold milk, and staff would just bring it to us. And they loved that they knew what our order was, and we loved that they cared and they also knew. When we actually decided to come and travel a little bit for a couple of months, one of our last visits was to go back there and tell Judith and her team that we were going away for a while, that we weren't just abandoning them. But sometimes when we sat and had those breakfasts, we would joke that it was so predictable and such a routine, and isn't that a little bit boring? But my husband and I both decided that it's not. It was the routine. It was the comfort of knowing something that was always the same. And on that foundation was what we used to do other extraordinary creative things that we do. And for me as a futurist, I think this is such an interesting thing to think about, a concept, is that we need to have something that is predictable and safe, something that is of comfort to us that we can retreat to. And only then are we able to deal with all of the different things that are happening around the world, the complexity of the world, the pace, the wars, the nonsense around the world that is happening, that is a threat to us, and also that we have to respond to. We have to think about our work in different ways. We have to think about travel now in different ways. We have to find new ways and creative ways of responding to what is happening, or we will be left behind. But we can only be that creative. We can only really expand and extend ourselves if we have the comfort of something to return to. And so that's what I encourage us all to do. Find something that is safe, that you can build off of, and that way we can face the future with so much more energy and anticipation and excitement rather than feeling threatened the whole time.
