In vino veritas and in conversation, truth- End of the Day for June 14, 2014

Just said goodbye to some friends after an excellent night of dinner (chicken marsala with asparagus), a nice bottle of wine and some great conversation. It can seem a bit old-fashioned at times, but we love having folks over for dinner. My cooking doesn’t really stray to the gourmet side of things, but I think I put on a a decent “feed” as we might say in Ohio. I have some tried and true recipes I return to over time, trying to give return guests something different each time they visit. Chicken marsala has only recently re-entered our “Recipes in Rotation” since I found an easier method of making it that results in a very tasty dish.

Of course, the tastiest dish of all is the conversation. It is great to have time to catchup, share some stories, help each other out with homeowner and other issues and just enjoy some conviviality*. I use and enjoy social media as much as anyone, and I love to be able to keep in touch with that is happening in people’s lives, but face-to-face conversation is enjoyable in an entirely different way. Conversations in real life are wandering, stuttering, shifting things that bounce from topic to topic, idea to idea, thought to thought with no obvious plan or design. It is organic and natural and, I think, uniquely human. I wonder what would happen if we could all just have some really good, honest, conversations with those around. Would some of the world’s problems be solved? Probably not, but it seems a great place to start.

So, I head off to bed with a head full of new thoughts to consider, new ideas to pursue and the feeling that good conversation is like a fine wine you savor. It is complex in its flavor although made form some of the most basic building blocks of life. Like wine, too, conversations can yield grudges, biases and, hopefully truths. In vino veritas, as the old Latin phrase goes — ““in wine [there is the] truth.” I would add that in conversation there is truth, too. Wine may coax our deepest thoughts into the open, but they are exposed through conversation with others.

Looking at the Wikipedia page for this quote, I see this Russian version, translated as “What a sober man has in his mind, the drunk one has on his tongue.” I have always found that the first thought or word that pops into someone’s head is often the truest. The things we say without consideration, contemplation or craftiness, is usually what we most believe in our hearts. This can difficult to hear sometimes — even when we speak it — but we must recognize the truth that comes from it and then consider what that really means.

I highly recommend a good dose of conversation with friends for whatever ails you in your life. It can inform. It can support. It can even heal.

* the quality of being friendly and lively; friendliness.

Previously on End of the Day: