This column appeared under the “Hip Hops” rubric at Food & Dining Magazine on 27 December 2023. Head on over to F&D to read it.
Hip Hops: If you’re willing to play the (beer) game, it’s coming around again
At this precise moment, your faithful correspondent finds himself outside the tent of beer biz employment, with Common Haus Hall having folded in February, and Pints&union electing to place me on waivers in November. Honestly, at 63 one must at least consider the possibility that free agency will be a wash. I may or may not find another gig as a beer strategist and programmer, and be compelled to climb into the booth for color commentary.
The jury is out, and yesterday at the Irish Rover those pints of Guinness, smoked salmon and cottage pie in the company of old friends served as a vivid refresher of the beer values that matter most to me in my dotage.
Beers with a Stoic closes a circle that dates to 1978, when my first college class was “Intro to Philosophy.” Later, philosophy and history were my major and minor, respectively. Stoicism comes to us from ancient Greece, positing that to embrace the virtues of wisdom, courage, justice and moderation, we can attain “ataraxia,” or a sense of inner tranquility and harmony in our own lives, focusing on matters we can control — thoughts, emotions, and actions — while accepting the things we cannot, like the actions of others, or the natural course of events taking place in the world around us. No one is perfect, least of all me. But we all keep trying, pausing here and there for a beer. For more: Stoicism.
