I’ve been saving this bottle for a special occasion and what’s more memorable than Election Night 2020. Made in collaboration between Winc and NYT best-selling author and poet, Atticus, this wine was inspired by the creative processes of writing and wine making. Like many of you, I find pleasure in a good glass of wine. Wine can be like poetry, and even on the worst of days, life is poetry too.
You see, I am a writer. I am an artist. And I am an American.
This year has been insurmountable for so many reasons. A wild election season. A pandemic. An economic crisis. A shut down of all the things that cultivate connection with other humans – going to bars and restaurants, group fitness classes, going to church, shaking hands with a stranger, attending live theatre. When I think about these missing moments, I get overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the lives upended, put on hold, or cut short.
Tonight feels like the culmination of all these things. And it’s easy to indeed feel lost. Like a drop of water in an ocean – impossibly small and seemingly insignificant. I’m not going to say that whatever happens we will be ok, because I’m not sure. I know that I am committed to doing the next best right thing tomorrow and the day after and after and after. And that’s something that can’t be voted on. That’s something that’s in your heart.
A lot of us are drinking tonight. Finding a small source of comfort in a big glass of wine against the chaos of the nation in which we live. Know that I am drinking with you. That my heart is open to yours. And that no matter what happens tonight, millions of Americans came together in record turn out to speak out against hate. Victory will come from this moment and the narrative will be about the people who showed up and showed out.
Drink on. Live on. And speak truth to your poetry in the richest of ways.
To quote Atticus:
She was powerful,
not because she wasn’t scared
but because she went on so strongly,
despite the fear.
Oh, and the wine tastes good.