Sideways

I caught the end of the movie “Sideways” the other night.  I guess most people recall the humor of it and all that talk about wine.  I liked the protagonist Miles’ obsession with Chateau Cheval Blanc, a bottle of which he was saving for the perfect occasion.  Morose upon receiving the sudden news of his ex-wife’s pregnancy by way of her new husband, that occasion became a burger & onion rings in a fast food joint.  Yet even in that forlorn circumstance, Miles’ beloved vintage 1961 Cheval Blanc was savored to every last drop in its perfection.

Plato saw this devotion to the Ultimate, the One as “heavenly eros,” humanity’s highest expression of perfection.  There is something to be admired in our exercise of stretching to the Ultimate.  Beauty is in many ways what we have to offer the Godhead.

There was a famous restaurant critic in New Orleans during the sixties, seventies and eighties – Richard Colin.  He & his wife Rima decorated the New Orleans firmament of food with elegant words of discriminating praise.  Richard called the finest entrées lovingly prepared in New Orleans best restaurant kitchens as examples of a “platonic dish.”  Chefs poured everything they had into their foods in order to earn such a designation from Richard & Rima Colin.

Perhaps God rejoices in our devotion to earthly delights.