Civilization is the product of other people's obsessions. 
It's true. The most valuable contributors to a culture aren't its nice guys and everyday dudes, it's the rather demented creatures who want to make something other than what it is or, failing that, something ordinary into something perfect.
That's a big buildup for a little confession: I too am obsessed. Obsessed, as I've written before, with my SITE TRAFFIC. Which is growing smartly and consistently, month to month, thank God.
More important, I'm obsessed with wine. As if you didn't know. Many things interest me and preoccupy me, but nothing absorbs me like wine. It's a topic I can never tire of. The lore, the science, the taste, the emotion of it -- it's all fascinating. Wine is itself a world and a culture that I feel I was born for, although I wasn't born into it. And in my adolescent mind, a million years ago, no place in the world exemplified this more for me than il Bel Paese, l'Italia, and the ancient Italian culture that gave Europe aqueducts, the mile, the miles gloriosus and vineyards.
Because it's not just about the wine itself or the buzz it gives me. (Which I love and respect, by the way.) It's the way, in each glass of clean honest wine, you taste a bit of history and the personality of the people who slaved over it, you taste and feel in your entire body the gift of the sun on a particular day and year, the saving grace of rain, the taste of earth, and all the joys of this life, our only life, our one chance to live fully and as our Creator wants us to live.
In vino veritas, I believe.
In vino salvatio, I am sure.
One of the Illuminati vineyards, Abruzzo
you're a poet of italian's way of life.......
;-)
Posted by: lliloniadriano | November 28, 2006 at 09:43 PM
Caro Adriano, non lo sai? Io son di cuore e di temperamento uno di voi. Fino all ultimo bicchiere.
Posted by: Terry Hughes | November 28, 2006 at 09:50 PM
correggi il titolo.....:-O)
Posted by: lliloniadriano | November 28, 2006 at 09:58 PM
Allora...a che? Ossessioni?
Posted by: Terry Hughes | November 28, 2006 at 09:59 PM
wow, that was beautiful.
Posted by: Fredric Koeppel | November 29, 2006 at 07:55 AM
TH-
I couldnt have said it better
E la nave va
Posted by: Alfonso | November 29, 2006 at 09:15 AM
The first picture looks like Castel Sant'Angelo...I was "ossesionato" with it. When I was a kid I wanted to live in it.
BTW tu le chiami ossesioni io le chiamo desideri...
Posted by: Gabrio | November 29, 2006 at 01:06 PM
The lyric lurks within. I try my best to suppress it but...
Si, Castel S. Angelo. Di' ciao a S. Michele !
When I wrote about "clean honest wines" I was thinking specifically of one I've been drinking a lot of recently, the Albino Armani Pinot Nero. Not to plug an acquaintance, but it really is a lovely everyday pinot noir. And very clean and honest-tasting, too.
Posted by: Terry Hughes | November 29, 2006 at 05:24 PM
Bel post, è un credo emozionale ed ideale deciso e senza equivoci...non si può dire che il vino ti sia sgradito!!
Molto bella la foto del vigneto di illuminati...mi sa molto famigliare. Buona Salute a Tutti!!
Posted by: pierovini | December 02, 2006 at 12:21 PM
That's me, Pierluigi, senza equivoci. Grazie e hai ragione, e' un credo emozionale profondo.
Quanto alla foto, ne ho tante altre che fanno parte del mio "stockage" e mi piacciono perche' suscitano bellissimi ricordi d'Italia.
Ciao!
Posted by: Terry Hughes | December 02, 2006 at 12:28 PM