China

This is the land of “stuff”. Not that the Chinese are all too consumed with the consumption of “stuff” but rather the economic driver of selling it to the rest of the world. It seems that until recently most of us just ate it up. Now that gas is so freaking high I think some of us Americans figured out basic economics. (Why this isn’t a class in every high school is beyond me.)

So here I am. I have a degree in international trade and China is the land of “stuff”. I move and teach and learn that everything I learned in school was actually useful. I’m glad I had the economic background but I somehow still stereotyped 1 billion people. Eventually I learned that living is learning.

American companies lined up to sell their wares to the billion people who were, we hoped, dying to get more “stuff “for themselves. “Stuff” made us happy so “stuff” will make them happy too.

A little leery of how the impact of a billion “stuffed” people would affect the rest of the world, I started looking for more sustainable business models.

“Stuff”

Long story short I was a history major in college. Obviously a great degree with no likely job or career direction in sight. So I went to graduate school to get myself further in debt. I loved the history of trade finding it mind boggling that “ethnic stuff” made in one country could be a huge hit in another. People who made “the stuff” didn’t know much about the people who bought “the stuff” and vice versa. I was a child of the ‘80s- Pier One and Multiples and there was so much “stuff” everywhere.

I day dreamed about “stuff” and soon became a consumer of “stuff”. If I had $5 I was shopping in an antique store buying weird Chinese or Japanese statues, trinkets and cheap goods that looked exotic and cool.

I wanted to get a degree in Marco Polo but instead read riveting books about trade treaties. When I learned how much “stuff” had an impact on everyone, I was hooked and wanted to figure out how.

And did I ever.

In the Beginning There Was Rotation.

You know the feeling when you are going, going, going and then all of a sudden you realize that the Earth started rotating the opposite way of your go? You obviously get it after its too late and everything that was going your way is now, well, not going your way.

I figured I might as well start at the beginning. This is the story about the most unlikely, wine non-diva on Earth. No matter which way is go.