Dear Feastlings,
If it seems to you like these are divisive times, you’re right. Politics has taken over every facet of our lives, and with the pandemic still at full tilt, there’s very little for us to do to take our minds off it as we’re subjected to a barrage of opinions, about half of which we agree with and about half of which we don’t. We have our options: we can accept it all with quiet forbearance; we can clutch our pearls at the atrocities committed by the people we disagree with; we can get our there and stump for what we personally believe in; or we can hide under something and peek out on November 4th.
Ultimately, though, we’ll need to participate in society at some point. Once we all crawl out of our bunkers after the dust ahs settled, we’ll still be left with, God willing, a bunch of other people to deal with. And we’ll still agree with some and disagree with others. I’d guess, though, that all of us, even those we disagree with vehemently, love the place we live, and would like to see more of what we love about it and less of what we don’t, which puts us all squarely in the same proverbial boat, so I’m doing my level best when I see that person in the t-shirt or bumperstickered car that may as well say, “Doug, I disagree with you on every subject and every level and I hate you for disagreeing with me,” to stop myself from hating them back, and to allow them their beliefs, and to take it to the ballot box and hope that we all come to an agreement in the end. Preferably one that tells us all that we’re not going to get anywhere if we don’t work together.
In that spirit, this coming week’s donation deliveries are headed to the hardworking people at both the Pima County Elections Department and the Pima County Recorder’s Office. As usual, we’re donating 50 meals to them along with the 250 donated meals we hope to reach with your help. but we hope you’ll help the people who are trying their level best to count every ballot, count it fairly, and show no deference to one political party over another. I got an email from a guest begging me to leave politics out of our wine tastings, and I do my best to make it clear that Feast, regardless of my personal political beliefs and/or those of the staff here, which do unquestionably vary, is a non-partisan place. All I want is to serve good food and drink to people who appreciate it. You can vote however you want, and I encourage you to, and I also encourage you to help us keep our doors open and show a little love to these election workers, who feel the same way: you vote, they’ll count it, and we’ll move on from there. Here’s a little bit about the donation run:
Our next donation run: the people keeping our elections on the up and up
Back, though, to what I ultimately want to do- you know, the food and drink thing- we have two wine tastings coming up this weekend, and I’ll be adding information to these posts throughout the week as I get the heating instructions typed up. There’s one on Saturday, a tasting of blended reds,
and another on Sunday, with food pairings, another in our series of Trust Your Importer tastings, with Josefa Concannon of Louis/Dressner:
Trust Your Importer tasting with Josefa Concannon of Louis/Dressner Selections
and if that’s not enough to keep us busy this week, there’s also the regular menu.
Now I’m off to work on some of the projects we’re working on for November, but I promise to finish the Sunday tasting soon. Pinky swear.
Your friend,
Doug