TWO DAYS IN NAPA VALLEY
Lisa and I just returned from a two-day trip to Napa Valley– a bit of an early get-away for our 16th wedding anniversary. We stayed at a great historic spa in Calistoga (thanks to a gift certificate from friends). We sampled some great food and wine, relaxed by a natural hot spring pool in the sun, and made mad love together at all hours of the day and night. I am more exacted about my wife right now than at any other moment in our twenty-one years together.
When we first arrived at the visitors center we were invited to a time-share schpeal at a new local resort– with promises of wine tasting vouchers, free lunch and a free two-night stay at the resort. It was the most painful 90 minutes of my life– in a brightly colored room with many large smiling people drinking soda out of styrofoam cups and celebrating the salvation wonders of prepaid points based resort-style vacations. We were not good candidates for the sales pitch– since we mostly stay with friends on vacation or $47 rooms in budget motels. The saleswomen seemed shocked by our frugality and extensive global community (and the truth that friends from Brazil were presently staying at our house). When she found out I am a writer and speaker, she gushed over her affections for a well-known television preacher from Houston.
I don’t spend much time in the America outside of San Francisco, but when I do, I’m reminded of the markers that identify our culture as being individualistic, consumptive and debt-based. I watched the vacation home sales people sweat as they tried to determine which of us would be likely candidates to help them pay their mortage or credit cards for the month.
There has to be a better way to live– one that is more communal, sustainable, thoughtful and content. And on days when I think that it is hard to pursue community rhythms and intentionality, all I have to do is remember the alternatives. We are going somewhere we have never been before, and sometimes we may think we’ve lost our way, but I believe the struggle to live into our dreams is worth it.
