Charles Darwin Makes You Cool

So I got a new car last week - a 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse - after a very long and straining period of walking and taking buses, which in LA is no small feat. With nothing terribly pressing to do (besides the pile of work I really should be doing) I took it on a time-honored Southern California cliche - on a trip up Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu.

I knew there was a winery up there, though I had forgotten how far. No problem, this was a %100 pleasure drive. I've always enjoyed driving, as long as I wasn't late for something or stuck in traffic. Perfect...there's not much traffic on Sundays except cruising, and I sure didn't have to get anywhere. With the wind whipping through the car, the blue ocean on my left and mountains on my right, it was the perfect day. Really. After I passed Duke's Hawaiian Restaurant (where they make my favorite Mai Tais), the boardwalk and a surfer beach (I think that's where the original Gidget learned to ride the waves), I accidentally turned into Pepperdine University. Never been up there, and the view was breathtaking. This is cool. No price of admission, and nothing to compare it to. Just a huge, chrystal clear panorama of Californian natural opulance.

I got back on the road after a few minutes of soaking in the scene, and before long I reached the winery I remembered. It's a cute little place, something of a well-kept shack with small plants and wood trim decorating the entrance to the tasting room. I pulled up alongside some very expensive looking sports cars - though they were just as cool as they were expensive looking. None of that modest, concealed lethargy of sober dignity.

Stepping out of the car, I opened the trunk and pulled out the book I was reading, Darwin's "The Expressions of Emotions in Man and Animals," his writings on the possibility that facial expressions in man are inate, rather than learned. I had just started it, but it was a compelling observation and very well written.

Walking into the tasting room, I took a standing place by the tasting bar. The whole structure and grounds are perfectly configured to promote a leisurely, casual atmosphere for sampling (and relishing in) one of the most amazing substances made to short-circuit our human sensory system. No sooner had I walked up to the bar than a light-brown haired woman in her late 40s gently took the book from my hand and looked it over.

After that initial breaking of ice, Gini (that was her name) talked about how interesting evolution was, asked me what I thought of Darwin, and we swapped public radio stories and this and that for at least an hour. She introduced me to her husband, who was a former musician, guitarist, I believe. They also told me about a new field they're deep into studying: Theta Healing. I'm still not quite sure what theta healing is, but I believe it has something to do with influencing your body on a cellular level through some kind of psycho-neurological process that allows your body and mind to overcome obstacles in self belief systems. That's what I got from the conversation, over some really, really good wine. And they were wine club members, so I got some of the "Shhh" wine. I learned a lot of things...including how former hippy pot-farmers went into wine making, and through hard work, art and science, became the greatest agronomists ever to inhabit the earth. I'm supposed to call them up sometime so they can do a healing session on me. I'd be curious to see how it works.

After they left I continued with the next four wines on my flight, during which time a new crowd came in - a short, round man who really knows his stuff, a young pair of girls and a guy who seemed to be related to the winery up the street, and an aging playboy who drove up in a 1063 Corvette convertible. The atmosphere was rather unreal - timeless. The tradition of wine making seems to be all about money, and yet not about money at all at the same time. It's like the perfect mixture of nature and technology, the over-priced and the priceless, all meeting on the taste-bud interface of human experience.

After I walked off the buzz, went to the bathroom and read a bit of my book, I got back in the car and drove off toward LA, with the glowing sunset on my right side, culture, nature, science and myth all around me. Yeah, Charles Darwin makes you cool. And this was all very, very cool.