Cheers

THERE ARE TIMES when you speak to your travel agent, and the words trip, travel and journey are often intermingled as though they have the same meaning. Yet upon reflection, there is a huge difference between taking a trip and being on a voyage.

We all know that traveling consumes a great deal of energy -- airports and customs, where we stay, what to wear, when to eat, and so on. Being on a journey, however, goes beyond what's on our mind, by sometimes being forced to connect those little dots to what is in it.

You could say that physical travel is not a prerequisite for journeying. Many of us secretly journey each day in the quiet confines of our office space, as we fondly look at the framed pictures of loved ones on our desk. Or let our contemplations briefly wander, while downing our first Saturday morning coffee at the kitchen table.

Little did I appreciate those minute differences, until being dis- charged from hospital, after cardiac by-pass surgery last week.

I've found out lately, that any past accomplishments, mean absolutely diddly. This new journey at home is mostly in rocky uncharted waters, with few navigational aids to get you through the day. Sleep overtakes most of the daytime, and while awake, you wing most of your daytime chores in a zombie-like fashion. If you're lucky and in the right place, you get a smile and a slight course correction from the alert caregiver. In between, you quietly struggle along, adapt as best as possible, and frequently fumble through a pretext of regrouping with the best grace and dignity possible.

I must confess, I've always been representative of that generation slightly in age-denial. Over the years, I have enjoyed being a tour escort extraordinaire, a niche travel marketer, a publisher of glossy lifestyle magazines. My present apprenticeship, is now learning how to become a cardiac recoveree.

We've all journeyed far since the days of Camelot. I think having children changed a lot of that. Along the way, the Me generation became the Wee generation. The generation gap between our parents, became the Gap generation.

Perhaps LIFE magazine's Senior Editor, Robert Friedman, best summed it up in an earlier reflective article, "To the media, we will always be known as the baby boom. But to our babies, now becoming teenagers, going off to university, becoming engaged, having grand-children, we are already history."

Talk about looking back into the future.

This might suggest a past life has been more zig-zag, than straight-line. Not entirely so. Constant has been a life fascination about the culture of wine, appreciating the craft of the wine maker and the pairing of wine with food. Until recently, I really enjoyed con- ducting hands-on wine appreciation and educational courses to intimate gatherings and conferences. It's most gratifying to quietly watch a new generation of informed wine enthusiasts pour some- thing nice into their glass for a change -- in this lifetime, while they're still young!

Since I'm struggling to put a sentence together, and can't drink whatsoever due to heavy medication, this area is all shelved until the new year, earliest.

In spite of all this maelstrom swirling about, I have to believe my life-glass is still half-filled. Cheers!