Firstly, I do understand that I work in a creative industry (the wine industry) making expressions of art or happiness or terroir or business, depending on who you are. But there are times when the overall responsibilities of the wines, vineyards and business line up with pressures in other parts of the world (that we can't control). Sometimes, honestly, this feeling of overbearing burdens can be extremely hard to shake.
Understanding that just retreating to drinking copious amounts of our own product may not be the healthiest solution, I instead search out examples of how humans are truly exceptional. A go-to for a quick shot of strength is watching "Apollo 13" where science and ingenuity bind together against almost unsurmountable odds.
Last week a lot of the proverbial #*!% hit the fan, from almost all sides. If I were to sit back (with my lack of sleep) and think, all solutions spiraled down a rabbit hole of inconclusions. So, setting my old farmer body into our hot tub to sooth the joints, I started scrolling through the news. The Guardian, one of our sources for news from outside the United States, had a story that immediately attracted my attention. As a lover of music, there was an article about the Canadian Rock band Rush that I had grown up with. (Click here to read the article about Rush!)
Rush is a three-person band that started in 1968 and continued performing until 2015, embracing each new era of music. Their amazing drummer, Neil Peart, passed away in 2020, making another set of concerts very unlikely. The crux of the article in the Guardian talked about how they had found a new drummer, Anika Nilles, and would be going on tour once again. Yes, I can't afford the tickets, but the idea is amazing.
But the point of this little blurb I'm writing here is about Getty Lee and Alex Lifeson. Lifeson plays guitar and Getty Lee sings and plays bass. To watch this band play is pure magic. You need to understand that Lee often plays with a two necked guitar with a bass on the top and a rhythm guitar (I believe) on the bottom. In addition, he plays the synthesizer with his feet and a keyboard with his hands, when free. Oh, and he's singing at the same time!
Now, take this same situation and watch how he and Lifeson can chat and josh between themselves while playing in concert is positively beyond me. In fact, it makes me feel extremely averagely mortal, even though I think some of the wines we make are drops of God! (If you watch the video of the song Xanadu in the Rush article, go to about minute 7:45 to watch them having fun!)
But this feeling that there are truly unbelievably amazing humans out there with all sorts of unique talents and skills gives me hope when everything seems to be going sideways. And "hope", I believe, is something uniquely human!
So tonight, a glass of Zinfandel and a couple concert videos of Rush will put me in a spot where some worlds come together. And thank you for understanding that we can't always think about grapes and wine!
(P.S. I was hesitant to put in a picture of Rush or an album cover for copyright rules. So I put a picture in of Toothless as a relaxing aspect of simpler times (and a cat that understood them!). No, we don't have another cat yet. Sorry.)