I often complained of boredom as a child, but it feels like ages since I last felt bored, and I can stare at walls for hours now, reveling in the slow passage of time. With age, life moves ever more swiftly before my eyes, and I’ve made attempts to slow it down. I find a practiced mindfulness can focus my thoughts on the moment and remove imagined troubles of the past and future. There are no problems in the present. Nor can problems exist outside of one’s concerns, so a regular step outside of oneself can eliminate many worries. These are tricks of the mind, but then, what aren’t? And they keep me sane, or at least calm.
Like Wendell Berry, the Transcendentalists, and countless others, I rely on nature and science for a sense of perspective, and for a view of the world that is not a ‘grind’ but rather a wonderment, a whirlwind of constant change, of cycles and entropy, of unseen forces. I am both frightened and inspired by the fact that each night, we leave our conscious minds and travel at least five or six thousand miles on our backs or our bellies. Lately, I’ve been flying feet first, with my head to the ocean behind us. Travelling at nearly a thousand miles an hour, we reach the morning - along with California - at that place where the sun returns to sight. We then come to our senses and remember who we are and what we are doing here. This is nothing short of amazing, and it’s only the beginning of what’s really going on.
Come celebrate the wondrousness, the strangeness, the uncommonness, and the newness of it all with us tonight at THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS, when we taste NEW ARRIVALS to our shelves – 4 to 8pm - $12. *Live music tonight with Justin Brown on piano at 6!*
Tomorrow, Friday, February 2nd, we will be CLOSING EARLY at 4:30 for a private event.
SATURDAY, February 3rd:
MOUNTAIN WINES: Tasting Flights from the French Alps – 2 to 6pm - $12
SUNDAY, February 4th:
FOUR SHADES of TEMPRANILLO: The Pepsi Challenge of Spanish Tinto and Oakland Yard WINE CLUB PICK UP PARTY – 2 to 6pm - $12
See you all soon,
Max