commonplaces

One enormous commonplace in my life as well as the lives of many others in America is the presence and consumption of alcohol. I consider myself a moderate drinker by the standards of today's college student, but that being said I still would say that alcohol is a necessary commonplace in my life. Being one of the only legal drugs in this country, alcohol is a prerequisite for almost every activity I'm involved in. When I go to the pool at my complex I bring beer, when I watch football I drink beer, I get it when I'm at a restaurant and I obviously drink plenty of it when I'm at a bar. Every UofA football or basketball game requires hours of drinking prior to, and any home cooked meal requires a glass or 2 or 7 of wine. Alcohol acts as the ultimate social lubricant, when is the last time any of us have been on a date without some form of alcohol being involved? So social events are primarily dictated by alcohol but I also drink at times when I'm alone, althought not heavily. When i get home from work the first thing i do is mix up a cocktail are crack a beer, for whatever reason alcohol can relax me one night and get me amped the next. So to put this in context, i think alcohol represents a release for us in this society. We work all week to earn the right to drink on the weekends, whether we need to unwind from a rough day or let loose because of a rough week it seems as though alcohol is the agent that allows us to do that. This never seemed especially significant to me until i started hanging out with a kid from Saudi Arabia over the summer. Alcohol is illegal in his country and he has never drank it before, yet he still goes out to bars and clubs on a regular basis. His culture has it's own ways of winding down or enjoying time off that don't include alcohol. When alcohol is not available at certain social events it seems to kill the entire event, imagine having people over to your apartment on a saturday night for a 'party' and having no alcohol? Nobody would stay for longer than 5 minutes because getting drunk is such a norm in this country. I wonder what life would be like if alcohol was made illegal here.