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\u2018The unexamined life is not worth living,\u2019 said Socrates some 2400 years ago. The context: he spoke the words at his trial, just before he was sentenced to death. It\u2019s a quote that has been discussed endlessly. His point was presumably that it is only through seeking to know and understand ourselves that we bring meaning to our lives. If he were to stop philosophising, he may as well be dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Generally speaking, it\u2019s a good thing to examine our own\nlives and engage in a bit of self-reflection. It\u2019s one route to dealing with\nsome of the psychological baggage that we accumulate and carry around. We question\nourselves:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such self-awareness allows us to improve; it helps us\nunderstand others, too. But I would add three caveats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, the journey inside into our hearts and minds can be a\nperilous one, and sometimes it\u2019s best not to attempt it without competent\nprofessional help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, the danger to over-think things – and to be sucked into a black hole of negativity – is a real one. Moving on from difficult feelings and emotions can be hard. Hemingway once said that \u2018happiness in smart people is the rarest thing I know.\u2019 His point may be a little hyperbolic, but it is well made. If you are smart, and a thinker, it\u2019s often tricky to not see too much: to be disillusioned by the human condition generally, and also by ourselves and those around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third, some things really hurt, and the best way to deal with them is acknowledge them, and leave the wound to begin to heal on its own. The temptation is always to dig around a bit, pull the bandage off, see how the wound is, maybe prod it to see what happens. This is a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Life is difficult.\u2019 That\u2019s how M. Scott Peck famously began his best-selling self-help\/psychology book The Road Less Travelled<\/em>. Life throws up challenges. Daily we have to deal with things. Some of these things are very big things. How do we respond? <\/p>\n\n\n\n My tendency is to shove them away into a spare room and shut\nthe door. Over time, though, the room fills up. I can no longer use it. And\nthen all the stuff starts to bulge out: the room can no longer contain it. Things\nthat would have been relatively easy to process in isolation can coalesce to\nthe point that facing up to this accumulated mass of stuff is a daunting\nprospect. That\u2019s where self-awareness and the willingness to engage in regular\nshadow work is actually helpful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be tempting to look at people who never question themselves,\nand who never pause for self-reflection, and feel a pang of envy as they speed\nthrough life full of confidence and bustle. Theirs\u2019 surely must be an easier\ncourse, rather than that of the thinker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But is it? Does the failure to be reflective on occasion\ncome at a cost? What is the loss in terms of depth of relationships? Do we just\nnot get to see the tears of the clown? It there a tab that is run up, that at\nsome stage has to be paid back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full quote from Peck: “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n How does this relate to wine? Wine consumption can take\nplace on many levels. At the simplest, wine is consumed without much thought:\nit is unexamined. This is perfectly legitimate, and one of wine\u2019s key roles has\nbeen to act as a social lubricant. Drunk in company, at the table, wine has a\nvital social place. It enables us to be more fully ourselves; to open up and share;\nto participate more fully in the wonderful social occasion that is the meal. The\nunexamined wine can contribute a lot of pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But some reflection on what we are drinking can be rewarded.\nAs we interrogate the glass, suddenly there\u2019s a possibility of even more\npleasure, when the wine is good and true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There comes with this a danger, though. Over thinking is\npossible. Doubting the wine: seeing defects that might be in our own minds, not\nin the glass. Allowing analysis to over-reach and take over some of the\npleasure we should be experiencing from the wine. We should let the wine lead,\nnot our minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is the unexamined wine worth drinking? Yes, in some contexts. But to get the most out of wine it pays to be consciously present, and to examine it a bit. How much depends on the context and our desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n