Coffee Filters

As I was making coffee the other day, I noticed that I was about to run out of filters--those little paper things that you put the coffee in for auto-drip coffee makers. They're really thin and are often hard to separate from one another, so often it only looks like you're running out when there are a couple of dozen or more left, but this time I was down to my last 3 or 4.

Now if you've never purchased coffee filters before, you probably wouldn't guess that you can only buy these things by the gazillion. If you're outfitting your apartment for the first time, it's something like this:

• 1 coffee maker
• 1/2 lb coffee
• 2 lbs sugar
• 500 coffee filters

The smallest package of filters is easily less than $3 and usually comes with five or six little bunches of 50-100 filters each. I can honestly only remember buying these things twice in my adult life.

It was encouraging to think that for months or years I'd slowly and imperceptibly worked my way though each bunch of filters in turn only to come to the end suddenly and with no fanfare. I'd almost wished I'd seen it coming so I could have anticipated The Day that I would use the last filter. But I wonder if I would then have felt pressured to be sure I fixed coffee each day if I had realized I was on my last few....

Regardless, I think I have a greater respect for unheralded persistence and its role in accomplishing the overwhelming tasks in life.