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Thought for the Day: Life Lessons from the Bourbon Trail

I almost never buy a coffee cup; I have a very nice one that my son bought for me several years ago.  I certainly never buy one just for the cute saying; how lame is that?  Well... I broke that rule and purchased a new coffee cup from one of the bourbon distilleries I recently toured just of the saying:
Give me the coffee to change the things I can, and Bourbon to accept the things I can't.
Lame or not, I bought it and brought it to work. I showed it to a coworker, who remarked, "Oh... so spiritual..."  I replied, "Well, they do call it spirits."

In point of fact, I found that the bourbon process is actually a reasonable parable for our life in this world.  Alcohol (and other stuff, not important for now) is produced when yeast digests carbohydrates.  That process is known as fermentation; take a source of carbs, add the right yeast(s), you get a fermented gruel known as "mash".  Whiskey (or whisky, depending on its country of origin) means an alcoholic beverage distilled from fermented grains.  Start with barley, you can Scotch or Irish whisky (depending on how much is malted).  Start with rye and you get rye whiskey.  Start with corn -- ah... that great new world vegetable -- and you get bourbon... that great American beverage!

So here's the basic process.  Take water and (at least) 51% corn (most bourbons are about 70% corn, 15% or so malted barely, the rest wheat or rye) to produce a nice mash of carbs and sugars.  Add yeast and let sit about three days; which yields a fermented mash of about 20 proof.  Distill to get the up to 110 or 130 proof.  Place in charred oak barrels and left to age in the Kentucky weather for six or more years -- no environmental controls!  During that aging process -- when the bourbon takes on its distinctive color and flavor -- approximately 20% to 40% is lost to evaporation.  This is inevitable, given the use of porous oak barrels.  That share lost to evaporation is affectionately knows as the "angel's share".  Finally, the result is bottled at 80 or more proof.  Those are the legal requirements to be called bourbon, as specified by The Federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits (27 C.F.R. 5).

So think about that.  Simple ingredients -- water, yeast, and grain -- produce a complex result when left in the right environment to endure the seasons.  Impurities in the water, poor quality grain, or a bad cask in which to age and the whole mess is ruined.  HaShem breathes/pours our soul into an so physical body.  It lives there and edures/ages in this oh so physical world for a few decades.  We have very little control over our ingredients and basis make up.  But we have one advantage over the passive brew of bourbon; we have a free will to choose and a Torah to guide us.  The soul after its sojourn in this world is not the pure distillate it was before entering a body, it is improved -- takes on character and (literally!) body.

One brand that I particularly favor is named simply because it is the product by which its maker wanted to make his mark in the world.  That's what we are; we are the mark that our Maker wanted to make on the world.  That is also why I liked the words on the cup; in truth, that is our mission statement.  I need to put real hishtadlus/hard work into making myself and my world into the vision of the Creator.  On the other hand, there are many things out of my control; for those I need patience, faith, and a sense of humor.  I wasn't joking when I said, that is precisely why they call it "spirits".

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