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I was doing some research on why left brain, masculine dominance has evolved in our world, and came across Leonard Shlain, who I found to be one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever discovered. Leonard took my depth of understanding of our world to a whole new level. I highly recommend watching these lectures if you have a chance, especially The Alphabet vs. The Goddess and Sex, Time, and Power.
When one looks at a vineyard – you’re not looking at it in the same way as you would look at an orange orchard. Instead one sees a multitude of experiences past and of moments yet to come – moments of intimacy, memorable occasions, conversations and treasured friendships. Since time immemorial, vineyards have not only been the touchstone of certain regions, but have often been the lifeblood of local communities and the cornerstone of entire generations of families. Every vineyard contains a family, a history, a culture and a purpose. This was at least, the sentiment I had before embarking on a mission to New York City, where I would promote and sell wine’s connected to my family in some ways, and more importantly – wine from my country. During that time – having spent much time in preparation for the mission, I left with those stories and sentiments of culture and family fresh in my blood. But with every sales-call and wine event I began to feel further and further from the vineyard. Soon it was about laid in cost, case-discounts and what kind of Point of Sale material was on offer. I travelled the country in a rental car with a case of wine, a corskrew and a power-point presentation along the way having people from Westchester Wine Warehouse cruelly spit wine on my shoe after having left me waiting for an hour, sitting in cold-rooms of cellars in Maryland, helping do stock-takes in Ohio, presenting to Wholefoods buyers in North Carolina and pushing on-premise retail in Atlanta: and with every step I became a bit more confused and lost the focus of what I was doing. Having believed that wine was so important to my country and stepping into the States to tell the story of South African wine, it was very dispiriting to suddenly be faced with the fact that no one really cared so long as they could make a profit.
The first leg of the Commerce Bank triple crown of cycling (Lehigh Valley Classic) was today in Allentown, Pa so I took the afternoon off to go check it out. I had never been to a cycling race before and wasn’t expecting much, but it was surprisingly entertaining. Some of the best cyclists in the world were there, many of which cycle the Tour de France. It is a very social type of event because you only see them come by every 15-20 minutes or so (10 eight mile laps through the city), and then chat it up with your friends and family while waiting for the next pass. It was great to watch the cyclists push it out, their fitness was amazing. Very enjoyable event, and when it came down to the wire, the crowd started going nuts and the commentators were going absolutely bonkers.
