Loving Your Neighbor? Really!

 

        Shiny 2022 is putting a headlock on a lot of folks and forcing some tough questions about deep matters. 

    There's already enough "put up or shut up" vibe in the air.  All the  talk about a civil war makes these days even more twisted. 

    Let's put that all that on hold while we offer a dose of California winter from the central coast. New vistas are helpful when winter sinks deep into your heart.

    

Old growth, awaiting new life...

...the linearity of wine country is always appealing...

...the vastness of the Pacific blue puts things in perspective

...snow is rare on the central coast...but we celebrate rain,

...like when it puddles in our forests....

...and when the earth celebrates and activates a life web....

    We are pretty much like mycelium, connected, though presently our relationship troubles puts America in a dark passage.

    The daughter of a life long friend, a precious young woman we have watched grow under the tutelage of her loving and pacifist parents has enrolled in a concealed weapons program.

     A friend, an Army vet is adding a second 9 mm pistol to his car.

    Liberals talk about building a network of "defender" cells, militia like, to counter the well armed and belligerent right wing militias who have made plenty of news and trouble. 

    And on and on and on...

    People steeped in the values of the Abrahamic faiths have committed murder in their hearts. How many of you have been with friends, or in communication where someone talks about wishing Donald Trump and his ilk would be assassinated? Maybe you have.

    Historians say the last time we were like this was before the civil war. 

    We should all cry. We should cry not only for the divide, the differing views of truth, the seemingly irreconcilable differences between us and because of the dangerous stooges who bask in media's reckless light. We should cry for what we are destroying, for the democratic republic that was the world's best hope, before it was broken and now dissed by some of its own, including power players who know better. 

    We need not simlply cry, we should fear the evil we are raising. We should fear the rise of a chimera of hate, violence and destruction we breed in our hearts. 

    

    We're under a low ceiling. We have forgotten what our better aspirations are. We've lost sight of the wisdom spoken by men and women through all cultures and ages, the wisdom that, like light in a dark time, pushes us to be enlightened, and  leads us to evolve.

    One may sneer at the ancient axiom to love your neighbor as yourself, but look at the results of not doing so.

    Stay safe. Be well.

    See you down the trail. 

    

    

Budding-A New Bi-partisanship

 celebrating new

    Grape vines too are showing new energy in this spring of what we hope is the first of the year of post pandemic life. 

    A new political reality appears to be budding as well.

   While it was a splendid day for a flight over the wine regions of the central coast, we drove for a look-see in the Edna Valley south of San Luis Obispo.

    We then headed north to the Paso Robles west side District and took in the Adelaida and Willow Creek Districts as well.

   Some vines are ahead of others. These 4 regions offer Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Cinsault, Counoise, Picpoul, Viognier, Chardonnay and more, so the degree of budding is highly variable. 

    Producing a massive volume of grapes, including those bound for Napa Valley wineries, Paso Robles growers and wine makers have become among the most awarded. 

    The freedom to blend brought French wine making families to the region to do what they cannot at French Chateau wineries. 

    A winemaker's art flourishes here where creativity reset standards and where a history of growing and oenology blend to redefine wine making as California tends to do.`

     Thousands of miles from these picturesque settings, a Washington veteran is channeling history and political skill in an artful redefinition of bipartisanship, "Bidenpartisanship." 

        Biden's public approval rating soars, with both those who self identify as Republicans as well as Democrats. 

        Approval of the Covid Relief Plan and the proposed Infrastructure package is high with a majority of US citizens. He get's high marks for his handling of Covid. His support cuts across party lines. 

        Senate and House Republicans dicker but the majority of their voters support the Biden package. Biden has popular bipartisan support while the Trump infected party on Capitol Hill, already divided, becomes feckless. Their scorched earth partisanship is destructive if for no other reason than weakening a legislative process where give and take and compromise makes better laws and budgets.

        If the shoe were on the other foot and Republicans controlled the legislative branch they'd push their agenda. History certifies that; blocking even a hearing on Obama's Supreme Court Nominee, reversing their "principles" by jamming through a Judge in a presidential election season. Their tax cut for the rich is now targeted by Biden, another reason the party of the wealthy and the wacky do their obdurate whining. 

         They whine when they are not embarrassed by another Republican sex and morality scandal. Sleazy Matt Gaetz makes headlines and Mitch McConnell talks about corporations, and then walks that back. Their whining is amplified by the Trumpian insanity that infects their House members. Then there is Ted Cruz, Scott Hawley and Ron Johnson. American voters are moving toward the Democrats as Republicans fail to stifle their anti American, regressive and Jim Crow tendencies. 

        The revelation of the week is the Republicans caught on tape admitting even their own party rejects the dark money game of Billionaires trying to block the For the People Act, the election reform bill. A McConnell aid is heard worrying that even Republican voters like the legislation. A little known portion of the bill would stop the money from the most wealthy. 

This would also affect Democrat fund raising, further evidence of Biden bipartisanship. Biden is eying history. Republicans are eying a bunker.  

bunk mates

Hemingway and Joy made quick use of a car seat that spent a night in the garage.

a passage

Photo by Ralph Heimans/Buckingham Palace

        Being no fan of the idea of royalty or aristocracy, I am nonetheless duty bound to say Prince Philip lived a well tailored life. 

      See you down the trail.

Respect

orientation

     It is a difficult challenge that confronts all of us. In a time of intemperance, anger and hyperbole how can we remain civil?

     How do you disapprove, disagree and dislike attitudes and beliefs of friends and associates but not disrespect them?

     The old adage about avoiding religion, politics and sex never took with me. We have brains and spirit, passion and thoughts and we'd never fully engage our humanity if we did not exercise, fully exercise, our intellect and freely explore thought and especially those boundaries between us.

     The challenge, it seems, is to probe those lines of demarcation, so as to understand and learn, but do so in a way that does not threaten. And perhaps that is a flash point, threatening. It is difficult to watch and listen to an attitude or policy that seems anathema to those ideas and values one holds most dear. But, how to respond? I suspect this will be a growing challenge.

     

whither

into storms?

or

into light?

    My father Karl was also my best friend. I was particularly blessed that way. 

    A WWII combat veteran, political activist, competitive athlete, church officer, humanitarian, believer in human dignity and full human rights, he reared my brothers and me with the toughness of the drill instructor he had been but also with love and a liberal dosage of wisdom. A quote I grew up with was "I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."

    Nothing was off limits in our dinner table conversations and they were lively. My parents often had guests in the home who held different views and politics. There were disagreements, but they were civil and often my dad would inject that quote. 

     By the way dad would frequently say "... as attributed to Voltaire..." I asked him once why he said that. He said it was what Voltaire thought but there was a question about whether he said it in those words specifically.  On later research it appears it was a summary of Voltaire's thinking and written as such by historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her book The Friends of Voltaire. She also wrote The Life of Voltaire. The wisdom and capacity of the philosophy is none-the-less a fundamental principal of a civil society.

      In the last analysis it's all a matter of where we stand as to how we see things.

  green extension  

   The magic green carpet of California's Central Coast extends into wine country as well.

     See you down the trail.

A SPRING MOMENT IN WINE COUNTRY

AN ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL AFTERNOON

     Friends Bob and Jan were up in the Paso Robles Wine region and staying at the guest house at Bianchi Winery where the tender new growth is out.

    It became a good reason for a visit and dinner in the guest house.  

     The weather also provided marvelous hospitality. Dry, mid 80's, cooling breeze.

  On the east side, that portion of the Paso appellation east of the 101, the greening and budding is on.

     Jan does business with Bianchi and knows the product well
which added to the charm of the evening's menu.

     The Paso region was in its spring glory.

  As the sun began its descent, Bob went to work with the beef and mushrooms while the roast chicken I had been minding, was ready for viewing.

 Diane from Bianchi and a friend of Jan's and Chuck joined us. Sadly we were having such great time I failed to get pictures of Bob's superb rendering of Hearst Steaks, or the salad, or Lana's homemade bread and Thai Noodles. Suffice it to say
it was a splendid spring afternoon and evening in Wine Country. 

Cheers.

See you down the trail.