Analogy

lauriefleming and netzl gave me a birthday present last night. They gave me the gift of a meal totally prepared by them at my place. I note in passing that my birthday was in November and somehow the meal didn't get arranged until now but that is entirely my fault. The meal in question was superb and with lobelet for additional friendly company, a feast was enjoyed with great delight and I extend my heartfelt thanks to the gift givers.

As one does at such occasions, we consumed the contents of a number of bottles of wine. The thing is, I had a number of rather old bottles of wine lying about. I don't think phrases like "considerable vintage" would be appropriate to use for these wines. They were all wines that were designed to be kept, but certainly not for this long. A combination of forgetfulness and lowering personal wine consumption just meant that they had been forgotten about. I thought this might be a suitable occasion to see if any of them had survived.

None of the wines had gone off completely. None were actively nasty, but with one exception they were all past their best. They had acquired complexity and subtle characteristics but they had lost something too. They lacked fullness or power. Please excuse the inexact terms, I am not a wine buff - heck I'm not even a wine bluff.

One wine had survived intact. It had grown into something very special. It was a sweet dessert wine. Wasn't there some study that said that happier people (i.e. people with a sweet disposition) lived longer? Just a thought.