Page 428 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

the wonderful game that we all play called “Beer Pong.” Budweiser is smart—they tapped in.
All across the country you have Beer Pong being played as Bud Pong—Bud Pong tables, Bud
Pong cups, Bud Pong balls, Bud Pong tournaments! And people play. But wait a minute. Let’s
say I’m playing, and I dunk the ball perfectly into the cup and I chug down the contents and
enjoy. But wait, I just had a glass of water! Would I spend my time and money, my effort having
a glass of water and insulting the game of Beer Pong when it’s water pong? No, that does not
add up ladies and gentlemen. But wait, wait, wait! We have a wonderful coach here. Jessica
Twilley is a bartender. She organized a few Bud Pong tournaments. She works at the Esso
Club near Clemson University. What does she tell us? She tells us the rules of Bud Pong—
stated very clearly—it can only be played with water. And as an aside, she tells us, she’s never
seen water being used for it. Why am I not surprised?
Moving further ahead—the addiction side of it. Oh, don’t worry we’re not going toward sub-
stance abuse. We’ve heard enough about that. The TV says enough, the movies say enough,
the radio says enough—I’m not going there. My issue is with psychological addiction—a more
subtle form. When we were young we were told, “Drinking is fun.” We were told that the buzz
you get—the heightened feeling you get—is the greatest place to be. And the more often you
go there, the more often you want to be there; the more often you try to get there. But there’s
a catch. You see, the more alcohol we take in, the body develops a tolerance to it, so you need
more and more alcohol to get the buzz going to get the heightened feeling. More and more
money is spent to get the alcohol in the fi rst place, and more and more toxins therefore are
produced within our body. Our health begins to degenerate.
Again, let’s check the scoreboard. I believe the companies are winning still. We haven’t
scored just yet. Don’t worry, we probably will. No, we won’t. Anyway, while we are on the sub-
ject, what about binge drinking?
Now, we talked about two drinks being the safe limit. What is the binge limit? Five. Okay,
now K. Hsu in The Boston Globe Nation comes up with this little statistical analysis. And he
tells us—Mr. Hsu—the more we tend to drink, the more we tend to binge drink, the more we
overdose, we start to miss classes. We start to lose our positions in the grades. We start to
fi ght with friends, ruin our relationships with our families, and we get in trouble with the police.
For what? For what? Who’s winning here, really? Who’s even playing the game? This is not a
game anymore—this is much more serious than that.
But further ahead, I really need to share this. Why do we drink in the fi rst place? I took a
straw poll among friends and family and came up with two or three ideas. Number one, drink-
ing helps us unwind. Sure, I understand! The dopamine, the endorphin—we talked about the
chemical impacts. But wait, there’s a catch again. The British Medical Association jumps in
here and says, “Wait a minute brother! That’s not the whole truth. There’s more to it. Alcohol
is, chemically speaking, a depressant,” which explains why we fi nd girls crying in bathrooms
about their boyfriends; boys crying in bars about their work, their life, their girlfriends (if they
even think about them); and the worries that we try so hard to run away from come crashing
down in an avalanche upon us. They’re there—we need to deal with them. We couldn’t even
forget them for very long.
But the real question is, why else do we drink? To have fun? Do we remember that fun?
I drank—I don’t remember what club it was in—but it was fun. I drank, and I went with my
friends. Which friends? I’ll tell you tomorrow. What about this girl I picked up? Did I have some-
thing with her? I’ll ask her and tell you tomorrow. So, do we even remember the fun we had?
Not always. We lose track of our worries, we lose track about self-respect, respect for others.
We lose track of how to treat people—how to behave in public. And we lose track of maybe
just too much.
But this has been a long discussion. What have we talked about? We’ve talked about the
chemistry of drinking, why we drink. We’ve talked about the companies and their merchandis-
ing abilities, we’ve talked about the psychological addiction of it, the safety and responsibility,
or the myth of that.
Why even talk about all of this? Why? Who am I? Who—what authority do I have? None
whatsoever. But listen to this. God forbid something should happen. God forbid we’re found
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