9/11 - Windows On The World

On 9/11, five years ago, the world changed. At least seventy-two Windows On The World hospitality workers perished in an attack that changed the way the world feels everyday. It is hard to remember what it was like not to wake up anticipating some new terrorist tragedy. Wine is the antithesis of terrorism. Terrorism is about fear and violence. Wine is about love and beauty. Terrorism is about the killing of innocent victims. Wine is about affirming life. Wine is about joy and pleasure. Terrorism is about trying to destroy communities, wine is about camaraderie and building communities. Terrorism is about seeing the world as black and white. Wine is about oneness and communion. As Rumi said, " God has given us a dark wine, so potent that drinking it, we leave the two worlds...." Just because wine is forbidden to one six of the world's population doesn't mean that prohibition should be forced on the other five sixths of us.

"Be a connoisseur, taste with caution....choose the purest, the ones unadulterated with fear.... Drink the wine that moves you as a camel moves when it is untied." - Rumi translated by Coleman Barks. Wine gives us many windows on the world.