Notes From The Winemaker

Yoda Winemaking

«Wherein the author goes all Zen and Book of Five Rings on the reader.»

This morning I was in the shower – where all my "deep" thinking occurs – when my 5-year-old popped in the bathroom to ask permission to do something. I said "sure, just don't make a mess." She responded with "I'll try, dad." And what popped out of my mouth, unencumbered by the thought process, was "do… or do not – there is no try."

I wondered for a few seconds where that came from, then remembered Star Wars. You may remember the scene: in Empire Strikes Back, Yoda giving Luke the Jedi training on Dagoba, encourages Luke to lift his starfighter out of the marsh using the Force…

Yes – apparently Yoda has influenced my approach to parenting. This started me thinking, and I discovered that hmmmm… broadly, Yoda has helped shape a more general philosophy for me – a philosophy that has also affected my winegrowing.

When I was younger I was a slave to what I call the "coin-toss mentality" – where "to try" is the proximal cause for which there are two distal outcomes: "success" or "failure". The proximal action was driven by hubris, arrogance, inexperience, fear and insecurity, which rendered the two distal outcomes essentially equal in probability regardless of my own preparation – a coin toss.

«The author self-edits the rambling over-explanatory digression…»

With age my approach has changed in a way that can be represented by a more stable rhetorical square, arrived at through experience which has taught humility and led to self-assurance. In this construct, actions: "do" and "do not," are balanced by outcomes: "success" and "failure". This structure illustrates the elemental truth that "do" can be failure and "do not" can be success.

The square has allowed me to understand the right view that "do not" is sometimes the right effort. My winemaking incorporates a lot of "do not" these days.

Who knew that contemplating the lines a fictional character spouted in a pop culture movie could put this recovering catholic on the path of Dao. As Yoda tells Luke: "You must un-learn what you have learned."

«And with that the author returns to the here-and-now and leaves the philosophizing to more competent minds…»

posted 11/04/2007 11:54:00 PM