As I may have mentioned earlier, my grape crop came in early this year. So far I have three batches of wine going, one at 17% alcohol and another at 15%. The third is still waiting for the yeast, so its not cooking yet. Florida grapes don't ripen in big clusters, they ripen one at a time, so picking is time consuming While I pick, I contemplate the great questions of life. On this day I thought about the act of grape picking compared to the task of doing laundry and writing. This is what I came up with:
I don't know how it is at your house, but at mine laundry is a never ending task. I can wash, fold and put away five loads of laundry, turn around and find something in the dirty clothes basket. I think little gremlins with attitudes wait until I'm all finished, then dump more dirty clothes in the hamper when I'm not looking. Picking grapes is like that. No matter how long I pick in the morning, I can turn around and find one more grape that is ready to be picked. I could pick 24/7 and still find one more ripe grape. The only reason picking comes to an end is the grapes that I don't pick eventually get eaten by critters or rot. Sometimes I wish my laundry would get eaten or rot so I wouldn't have to deal with it.
Writing is like picking grapes too. Imagine that a grape vine is the manuscript, the out stretched suckers the sentences and the grapes the words. One grape vine can extend quite a ways. When I write, I am always walking down the vine, cutting words, sentences or whole sections. To produce the best grapes, the vines need to be pruned once a year. Manuscripts are the same, they need pruning to make them stronger and more productive. Tweaking a manuscript never ends. No matter how many times I read through it, I find a word I think could be left out or changed for a better word. It never ends.
So now you know how grape picking, laundry and writing are connected. Until next time, keep your words crisp, laundry moving and grapes fermenting.
I don't know how it is at your house, but at mine laundry is a never ending task. I can wash, fold and put away five loads of laundry, turn around and find something in the dirty clothes basket. I think little gremlins with attitudes wait until I'm all finished, then dump more dirty clothes in the hamper when I'm not looking. Picking grapes is like that. No matter how long I pick in the morning, I can turn around and find one more grape that is ready to be picked. I could pick 24/7 and still find one more ripe grape. The only reason picking comes to an end is the grapes that I don't pick eventually get eaten by critters or rot. Sometimes I wish my laundry would get eaten or rot so I wouldn't have to deal with it.
Writing is like picking grapes too. Imagine that a grape vine is the manuscript, the out stretched suckers the sentences and the grapes the words. One grape vine can extend quite a ways. When I write, I am always walking down the vine, cutting words, sentences or whole sections. To produce the best grapes, the vines need to be pruned once a year. Manuscripts are the same, they need pruning to make them stronger and more productive. Tweaking a manuscript never ends. No matter how many times I read through it, I find a word I think could be left out or changed for a better word. It never ends.
So now you know how grape picking, laundry and writing are connected. Until next time, keep your words crisp, laundry moving and grapes fermenting.
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