Empty Wine Holes

Collectors are quite a breed. Collecting this and that to seemingly no end. After all, who can really have all of the trinkets or baseball cards or whatever for that matter? There is always one to be in search of. I listened to a story of this man that collected Mercedes. He was a billionaire and had found his love. He just loved everything about these cars so much that he had quite a collection. He had 111 warehouses full of them. The gentlemen that spoke of this man said that he was in search of six more cars. He had every model ever made since their birth in the 1920’s. Wait a second. Every model ever made? That is quite a collector. He said that he was kept up at night because he did not have the last six cars. Imagine when the new models came out each year, he was ordering six or eight Mercedes or how ever many came out and just sent them to a warehouse. For what? Why? I mean that is a very impressive collection but after like three cars, what is the point of all the rest? You can’t even drive them.

Finally, the man that was talking about this came to his real point. He was speaking of his own wine collection at his house. Wine is a funny item. Having a huge wine collection is envious in some circles. Bottles sell for thousands of dollars and then at the end, when the bottle is gone, you can get merely a handful of pennies for the glass bottle. So, why? Why invest in all of these bottles of wine if their value clearly just vanishes into thin air? He, then, looked into the negative space. Instead of being so proud of a collection of wine, he began to find more pride in the empty wine holes. These holes in his wine rack represented the bottles he enjoyed.

You see, a bottle of wine is something you break out to share with people. You share this special drink with people you love. You laugh and you celebrate and you eat dinner with people. Bottles of wine are enjoyed at joyful times in our lives. These very well may be some of the richest times we have in this life. This man began to see this collecting thing from the complete opposite view and through this gleaned an amazing realization. Having all of something is not where it’s at. Knowing that you shared what you had with the people that you love is where the juice is in this life. He began to see the empty wine holes as a sign of a life well lived, not missing pieces to a bigger puzzle.

If you are blessed enough to have a boatload of cash, make sure that you help those out around you. If you crack open a bottle of wine, share it with those that you love. I guess this type of realization takes some time to come to, but showing up with a box of donuts on a rainy Monday at the office might just make for one hell of a day. I’d encourage you to reframe the negative space in your life just like this man did.

 

Danny Lesslie

@dannylesslie