In this time leading up to exams, we may be tempted to reject the Friday (or Thursday or Wednesday…) revelry of the past couple months, buckle down and study. While doing so, I feel that it is important that we not forget the friend that we have in the bottle. Getting drunk may not be the best thing to do the night before your philosophy paper is due, but alcohol is a gift that should be celebrated and honored, even when we are stressed. Perhaps it is in these times we should be especially thankful for this gift.
Alcohol is in some ways a miracle (or at least a cool coincidence). In the process of metabolizing sugar, a unicellular fungus, yeast, creates ethanol. This ethanol slows down the thoughts of humans and removes inhibitions. Yeast manages to bridge the gap between our desire for sweetness and sugar and our fascination with intoxication. This brings together an evolutionarily programmed desire for nourishment and the human desire for altered existence.
Beyond simply being an amazing organism, yeast is nearly ubiquitous. The idea of needing to buy or culture it would have seemed ridiculous to any human even several decades ago. Before the age of refrigeration and pasteurization, any juice was only sweet for a few days. “Hard” cider was a redundancy until prohibition, since any pressed apples would have carried their own juice that would have transformed sweet cider to alcohol in a manner of days. Grape juice as an entity separate from wine would be inconceivable to any person from ancient Greece or Rome. Without any effort at all, the sweet nectars of a fruit become the other worldly experience of drink.
Cultures across the globe and throughout all times have embraced, refined and celebrated brewing and winemaking. In ancient Greece and Rome, this took the form of gods that were in charge of not only wine but also wild celebration. The Tanakh and Bible make numerous references to wine, most notably at the last supper, where wine once again takes on the spirit of the divine.
Defining features of civilization have been built up around alcohol. Ritual and age rites are involved in the consumption of alcohol from east Africa to Western Europe. Alcohol is often used to bridge the connection between the divine and the earthly, particularly in western religiosity. Christians drink communion wine in order to become one with Jesus; Jews drink large quantities on Purim so that they can no longer tell reality from that which is not.
Most cultures also recognize that the celebration that comes with the enjoyment of alcohol must also be tempered with responsibility and restraint. By constraining the enjoyment of drink to only those of a certain age or to certain days, humans build up a culture that recognizes alcohol as a responsibility.
Besides creating a connection to the divine, alcohol also fosters a more complete connection with our own selves. It releases our inhibitions in ways that can be either destructive or constructive. Alcohol can help us to realize what it is that we truly desire to say, and perhaps suppress whatever it is that stops us from saying it. I hesitate at using the term “liquid courage,” but perhaps “liquid muse” is more accurate. Inspirations to make us more fully become ourselves.
Studying calculus three sheets to the wind is likely not a great idea, nor is trying to draw connections between feminism and genetics after a game of shot glass checkers. Yet a glass of wine may be just the thing to help you understand “The Symposium” more fully, a margarita might be inspiration needed to finish your Spanish essay or a glass of 2 Below Winter Ale might help you relax enough that the secrets of plate tectonics will finally fall into place.
Certainly the small victories of our last week of school, the last exam, selling back your least favorite book and
those late night caffeine induced inspirations, should be celebrated with all the revelry that we can muster.
