Essentially, you could say that there are two types of people: those who get better with time and those who get worse as the clock ticks down. How can we explain this difference? Why do they get better while others go downhill?
Even if nature has spoiled you, that she has been generous with you, it is always up to you to make this capital grow. Otherwise, it would be as if you were the heir of a rich family and you were squandering the patrimony that was bequeathed to you either through negligence, irresponsibility or lack of virtue. By being born with attributes that give you an advantage (beauty, intelligence, social background, etc.), you are not safe from aging badly like the most ignoble of piquettes.
What is essential to avoid ending up like the most infamous wine in the twilight of one’s life is to cultivate integrity, that is to say, to have a moral code and better than that, to seek virtue.
The best wines are not good young
It will not have escaped your attention that the wines that age best should not be drunk at a young age. If you persist in doing so, you will find that the wine is not drinkable. However, it has all the conditions of an excellent vintage, it is up to you to wait to drink it.
It’s not where you start that matters most, it’s where you’re going
It is not your birth that defines your character, but rather the eagerness with which you work to polish it.
How to improve with time?
If it is not easy to know which path to take to age well like good wine, it is because we tend to want to take shortcuts. Looking for short term gains always exposes us to disappointment in the long run. If you want to have a good image in mind, think of the mango planters. They voluntarily deprive their plant of fruit in the first few years (by ripping off the flower buds) so that the tree becomes big and strong (because it saves its sap) and can then give good fruit in large quantities ten years later. Knowing how to wait is not easy, partly because we lack vision and clarity about the possibilities that are open to us.
The need to adhere to a demanding school of thought
Nature abhors a vacuum, if you do not choose a demanding philosophy of life, life will assign you a philosophy and moreover, without your knowledge. Without a course to follow, you will naturally fall into the traps that modern life sets for you: nihilism, consumerism, self-hatred and hedonism are some examples. This is why choosing a philosophy of life is a serious matter, having values and sticking to them is not to be taken lightly.
The need to experiment before choosing
Before buying a car, we must drive it. Before adopting a philosophy of life, it is necessary to try it out. It is by practicing that one becomes a blacksmith. It is by philosophizing that one becomes a philosopher, no matter if you evolve in your path and abandon certain ideas, the very ones that had carried you until then.
Values manifest themselves in three ways
The thought
Before building your values, you need to meditate on the ideas that may have been passed on to you by your parents or that you may discover through your reading. Essentially, a philosophy of life must bring us happiness. The values that we choose allow us to better support the afflictions of life while finding a manifestation in their incarnation. Reflecting on the origin of happiness is one of the essential engines of a philosophical approach.
The word
Our speech should reflect our thoughts. Speaking well can also be a sign that our ideas are structured, but the strength of our speech can only be measured by our actions.
The action
In the end, action is only the true revelation of our coherence with our thoughts. It is the action that signs what we really are. The most beautiful speeches can do nothing about it.The nobility of a thought is always manifested by an action that is just as beautiful. Conversely, a despicable act is only the reflection of an equally despicable thought.
The thermometer: review and meditate frequently on your actions to measure the nature of your heart and the consistency with your ideas
Choose your friends as you would choose a good bottle of wine
It is often said that our friends are a reflection of who we are. Apart from that, our friends are often the result of our decisions. What does it mean to choose your friends like you choose a good wine?
It means that we don’t choose someone based on instant gratification as we do when we buy a bottle of bad wine that we want to drink quickly. Bad wines do not age well, that’s why they must be drunk quickly. The same is true of friendship. Party friends, friends who only share good times, are not real friends, or at least they are friends of little value.
A true friend endures the hard times with us, they stand the test of time. After these moments spent by our side, the friendship is strengthened. The same is true for good wine, for which one must wait before tasting it.
The only criterion for a friendship like good wine is the test of time.
How can we learn to become like good wine?
The values
As we have seen, in order to become better every day, we must have a course, that of the values we have chosen. Defining a trajectory, a base of values is the first thing to do.
The efforts
The second important thing is to make the daily efforts to embody the values you claim to have.
Patience and trust
Finally, one must know how to be patient because one has confidence in the seeds one has planted. A winemaker will not rush to open a bottle if he knows that it is a great vintage and that it needs time to give its best. He also knows that he has given the best of himself, everything that was incumbent on him (cutting the vines, selecting the shoots, eliminating the bad grapes, choosing the right soil, adjusting the watering, harvesting at the ideal time etc.), he has given 100% of the 50%, the rest is up to Providence, nevertheless he is confident because he has gathered all the conditions for the wine to turn into an exquisite nectar Human nature is the same, the best reveal themselves in time, all the work they have done in silence and sweat will emerge sooner or later. Those who have taken shortcuts will eventually be found out.
