The Sober April wasn't meant to happen, and i have failed on the very first day of the month - Friday, when upon screening the crowd at one of the Bushwick night clubs I sighed and declared that I need a drink, now.
While alcohol is not particularly healthy;
It is indeed a social lubricant, a melting - sharp-communicational - corners substance, and the key to understand and to be understood in the foreign environment should that be a different industry or a different country.
My Serbian friend once told me a tale about a foreign general who came to Serbia to sign an agreement only to learn that he must drink with the Serbian army chief before signing anything. The chief's reasoning was very simple, "I can't trust someone who can't drink with me. "
Many of my European friends have shared with me their version of this story adding that they also wouldn't be too comfortable in a company of a person who doesn't drink. " What is he hiding? Is he trying to take advantage of me? Is he sick? Does he take medication? And overall, what's his story?"
This post is not to agitate you to run outside and buy a bottle of something and make it a day. It is to make you understand the different psychology behind everything, and how having one social drink can turn things in your favor.