The Unifying Theory of Alcohol
How I was able to reframe my perspective on social drinking
A few months ago, a friend came to London from New York. We met at the Unbound office in Islington and walked down to Cannon Street station to get the train home. We caught up as we walked through the city. At one point, we took a small detour so I could show him the recently revealed resting place of William Blake.
During our walk, as we navigated through the cars, people drinking pints who had spilled out onto the streets, and occasional angry cyclists swerving to avoid them, he turned to me and said, “What’s the occasion?”
I was a bit confused. “What do you mean?”
He pointed to a crowd of office workers with pint glasses on the pavement behind us. “All these people on the street drinking.”
“Oh!” I chuckled. And then I really started to laugh—slightly nervous from a mixture of pride and shame. “It’s just a Thursday after work. This is what it’s like in London.”
He was momentarily amazed, but then recounted stories of British and Irish people he hung out with in the U.S. and their seemingly constant desire to drink.
“Do Americans not drink like this?” I asked.
