Sunrise

Most of you you received the Wine Update emails are familiar with Garagiste - an online/email wine retailer in Seattle. Garagiste has a huge customer base that spans the world - and Jon Rimmerman almost always prefaces the daily offers with an entertaining, often compelling narrative about the the wine, winery, or region. Half the fun of being a Garagiste customer is reading the emails.

Here's what Jon sent 11/5 - as a preface to an offer for some great champagne.

A New Light
I have a pact with each day and with the sun in particular.

I always greet the day with eager anticipation and as long as the sun is willing to rise, I’ve assured it that I will give the day my all, no matter how tired my hands or tough it seems.

I looked out the window this morning at the same sun I always greet - it rose from the southeast (as usual) but today it was more self-assured, it appeared to spread with confidence in all directions - to the north, east, west and south. For some reason, the rays were warmer this morning - the light appeared just a bit clearer.

This morning I filled my lungs with a new air - a breath of buoyancy from a country that is different than it was yesterday, different than it was in 1776, different than it was in 1865.

Today we breath the air of tomorrow, held in our hands as the most delicate of opportunities. Fleeting for sure, but it is there for us to nurture, to grown and coddle despite what are certain to be missteps along the way.

Sometimes our will as human beings can outmuscle our negativity and yesterday that most fleeting of human traits was propped up by a desire bigger than any single one of us. Sometimes ‘larger than life’ is life itself.

40 years ago, across the southern tier of our country, a significant number of the population could not register to vote - last night they used that vote to sweep away three centuries of depravity and judgment based only on a color and not on the integrity, ambition or intellect of the human being. Is that prejudgment ancient history? Not a chance - we’ve taken the smallest of steps but the door is now slightly ajar and it’s going to take all of us, every one of us, to keep the ever-present wind of resistance from blowing it closed once again. Regardless of who you voted for, there is only one vote that now matters - your vote of confidence - your willingness to give the man a chance. Nothing is free - he will need to earn our respect but he asks for your unbiased arm extended - without precondition.

This morning, as I watched that new light rise, I received an email note from a good friend of mine (and customer) - a well-off staunch Republican that has been an advocate of the center-right for years. We frequently exchange musings on the ideas of our time but something struck me in his note today that seemed to resonate with many voters yesterday, he wrote “I’ve voted Republican for the last 30 years, but when I searched my soul, it was for ‘me first’ not ‘county first’ - I voted in most elections to pay less taxes and I certainly benefited more than most from the last eight years. I paid the lowest taxes of my adult life and I made the most money. Yesterday I voted for the Blue side and you know what - for the first time I did it for ‘country first’ - I think the wrong guy had the slogan in this year’s race. As a small-biz owner, I know I'll pay higher taxes, probably a lot higher but for some reason, I don’t mind”.

Last night we let enormous pressure out of the bottle so let’s go ahead and pop the cork on a new frontier...even if you voted on the red side of the fence (which many of us did), my faith in our ability to reach a common good is what motivated the original settlers to unify this land in the first place.

Easy - no. Possible - you betcha’.Here’s to you America.

- Jon Rimmerman**************************************************