I'm a wine drinker, and grew up in a place full of vines. September and October were grape picking season! And what fun it was. After the pickers have been, you are allowed to run wild in the rows and pick what they've left behind. Yes, Barbara - so many little creatures live in the vine!
And then there's the wine...We were given sips of it as children, and a glass with our meal as teens.
It makes you jolly if you have more than 2 glasses, tipsy if you have more than 3, but it's nice, not dangerous in that kind of dose.
It spreads joy and laughter and talk, good cheer! A votre bonne santé! We say here - "to your good health!" For letting go and smiling and mild intoxication is recognised as being good for the soul, even though...chit chat, no discretion around Miss Grapevine... better forget your secrets when you are spending time with her, or everyone will know them.
This card reminds me of that charming scene in the film Babette's Feast, when the tight-laced Lutherans in a village in Jutland, having eaten and drunk of Babette's wonderful food and wine, gradually open up, enjoy themselves and share merriment and tenderness with each other for the first time ever.
But careful! If too much is drunk - it spreads quarrels, hangovers and cyrrhosis!
And this reminds me - when the Roman God of Wine, Bacchus, was associated with the Greek God of Ecstasy and Tragedy, Dionysos - wine, ecstasy and drama were inherently seen as all linked. Intoxication (to love, to joy, to divine communion, to dancing) brings ecstasy, too much intoxication - tragedy!
Where is that fine line? For sure we won't ask Miss Grapevine, she wouldn't have a clue