Life on the Hilltop

Somewhere on Lakeshore Drive or Thereabouts
Kelowna, British Columbia

The past weeks have certainly been atypical of the usual tourist fare proffered by online travel brokers. Travel operators are not typically offering opportunities to participate in the electoral process in foreign countries. My hosts are very politically minded and participate greatly in the political process at the provincial and federal levels. So it was I found myself in a privileged circumstance this evening.

The Okanagan Valley has become a worldwide destination for wine connoisseurs by virtue of the dozens of fine wineries that have sprung up here in the past few years. A grand facility known as Cedar Creek Estate Wineries has sprouted on the shores of Okanagan Lake and the fruit of its fields has won it ‘best of show’ for several years at the international level. The physical environment of the estate is everything one could possibly imagine for a winery – perfect climate, magnificent botanical plantings, fine fields with lush grapes, interesting architecture, expansive water views from high promontories, finely presented food, delicate wines, and beautiful people.

I am reminded of the passages in one of the epistles of the Apostle Paul where he states he learned how to be content in all circumstances, whether rich or poor. The meltdown of the US financial markets the past several days have left me decidedly poor and today I was with the decidedly rich. Hosting a political fund-raiser for a Federal Parliamentary candidate was the owner of this grand estate winery, a man who had a larger-than-life story to tell. He spent decades in Ottawa as a respected Federal leader in Parliament. He has large-scale family businesses and connections all over the world. Thursday he heads off to Italy to hob-knob with winery owners there. He is more vibrant at age 75 than most people at age 40. I felt definitely poor among this crowd of industry owners and civic leaders. I tried to figure out what someone from a small rural town in South Carolina was doing at a upscale event like this, besides eating fresh salmon, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, and a dozen other culinary wonders. I felt a bit like an imposter who might get found out.

As it was I had plenty to eat, attempted to discretely take pictures without looking like a gawking tourist, and eventually had good conversation with a number of people there. Like our host, all of the people I spoke with have lived huge lives and continue to see the world as their oyster. They certainly seem to have come up with plenty of pearls. I found myself wondering where they hide average people these days. Perhaps they will use me to create the lower bound of a statistical distribution. Maybe that is the real reason they occasionally let me in with the beautiful people, despite my not having much hair anymore.

The food was really good.