Go Ahead! Drink the ’61 Cheval Blanc From a Paper Cup

My friend Laura provided me an instructive moment of delight yesterday when she confided that she’d just opened a jar of 2007 “Plum Yum,” a jammy concoction made of Italian prune plums from my orchard. She said she’d been trying to break her lifelong habit of saving special things for special occasions. “Trying to drink the fancy tea, use the fancy soaps, eat the meaningful jams and preserves,” she told me, while reporting that that the 2007 vintage is still delicious. Her dispatch made me reflect on how much better it is to enjoy things than to save them. For the longest time, I kept the embroidered quilt Grandma Friesen had made for me stored in a closet, because it was so special. After many years and several moves, I thought what’s the point of having it, if it’s always stored out of sight? So I started using it on the bed, and it now has a few stains but allowing it to be part of my everyday life is the very thing that makes it so special. With it in my living space, I get a…