Brava! Tuscano!! Magnificato!!

On Thursday, I may have experienced heaven - or at least as close to heaven as I will ever get while on earth.  And if that "prophet" from Family Radio is right, I will not have much longer to experience earth.  Today, Saturday, is supposed to be the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.  While I anticipate Christ's return imminently, I don't expect it to happen today just because a guy with a mic and radio antenna says so.  But that's a diversion from the true subject of today's posting...

Ah Tuscany!  Oh the wondrous beauties of the Chianti region!!  I know have a clear visual image in my mind for what love looks like when applied to creation.  God really knew what to do when making this portion of the planet.  I love Ohio - and as an Ohio non-native, that is an adoptive love, love by choice.  Chianti, however, there is no choice but to love it.  Once you've seen it in person, it's lure is irresistible.  Maybe this is where Calvin got the idea of irresistible grace??

 These pics are from one of the two wineries we visited in the Chianti region.  A whole day spent sampling a variety of the best olive oils, cheeses, meats and wines that this area produces.  It was lots of fun and incredibly educational.  For example, I never knew what subtleties one could taste from different varieties of olive oil.  I also never knew that there was a particular best method for experiencing those varieties of taste.  One puts just a drop of oil on the tongue, then one starts "slurping" air from the corners of one's mouth to generate saliva.  The saliva is necessary in order for the oil to break down into the taste buds.  Taste buds, it turns out, are three-dimensional.  Think of incredibly tiny trees all on the surface of the tongue.  It's like a forest, where the foliage is so thick, things have a difficult time reaching through the trees to the floor.  The olive oil stays stuck on the top of the "trees" and all one can taste is the slippery nature of the oil.  However, the saliva breaks down the molecular structure of the oil, and so the oil then can flow through the "trees" down to the "floor" and a whole new realm of taste becomes possible!

The mouth also has "regions" where certain types of tastes are emphasized.  We have a bitter region, a sweet region, a tangy region and an acidic region.  Once the oil breaks down, one swirls it in one's mouth in order to experience all the ways the mouth's regions are affected by the oil's subtleties. 

As I followed the directions of proper tasting, I was amazed at the results.  My culinary experience will never be the same again!  Who knew that something as simple as olive oil could ever provide this variety of flavor?? Crisco will always be a plain old blah, dull oil after this! 

The wines of Chianti are also spectacular.  We enjoyed a number of varieties of both red wine - which is what Chianti is famous for producing - and white.  I acknowledge that for some people, alcoholic consumption is a problem.  They have either very practical experience-based objections to it, or deeply embedded moralistic rejection to the very idea of it.  I grew up experiencing the latter objection.  As an adult, however, I have come to realize that alcohol - in itself - is morally neutral.  The morality - the rightness or wrongness of it - lies in the person.  therefore, for some people, it is wrong, and always will be wrong.  For others, it is right and will always be right.  And still others, they really don't care much either way.  I belong in the last group.  I enjoy it, but I don't see it as a necessity to life.

Wines, too, have amazing subtleties that one needs a wise teacher to learn how to experience and appreciate.  Both our guide and the vintners we visited were experts in showing us how to understand and enjoy them.  With a more educated palate, I think I've been spoiled against the entire concept of "cheap wine."  And that's not the same thing as "inexpensive wine."  The former is stuff that really isn't worth putting into one's mouth.  The latter can be a whole world of surprising adventures.  And "expensive wine" doesn't guarantee being a good wine.  Expensive really means more complex, longer creation processes - and they don't necessarily mean the wine that results from the processes is superior to less complex and time-consuming processes.

The bottom line for me from all of this is that God gave us an incredible gift when God designed our gastronomic systems.  The ability to experience what God created in nature, and the ability to creatively use nature's bounty, are both amazing gifts.  The Psalmist talks about experiencing God as he looks at the moon and stars.  I also experienced God in the indescribably wonderful Chianti region of Italy.  Thank you, Lord, for all your wonderful gifts!!