Friends and family will come together regardless of what they’re doing. But, I was wondering this morning after a great evening with perfect strangers. What else brings people together? How can complete strangers bond, even beyond the barriers of language, ethinicity, or nationality.
This is what I came up with so far…
Drinking: Be it alcoholic, coffee or in Argentina, Mate… drinking seems like it is a good excuse for people to sit down at a table with a perfect stranger and talk.
Food – Anyone can respect a good meal and food definitely brings people together. I learned this one from Anthony Bourdain.
Games: Board games, cards and dice are international. Winning and loosing is known everywhere even if the rules aren’t.
Video Games: Last night I got to talking about Wii, Xbox and Playstation with someone who didn’t speak much english but still loved blowing things up on ‘Resident Evil‘. I am not much of a gamer but I have enough friends who are to hold my own in a convo. Luckily, he didn’t ask me to play. Videos games are a great way for perfect strangers to come together and blow stuff up. Anytime you kill aliens or zombies with someone to help save the planet it will inevitably build a bond.
Weed: I am not much of a smoker and I don’t endorse it but, I know a lot of pot smokers and they seem to somehow find other smokers. I don’t know if its because once you smoke you sit around and have deep conversations about the government and favorite Little Debbie snacks (tie between star crunk and oatmeal cream pies for me) but there is a definite bond that is formed from this oldest of past times.
Sporting Events: Fact – sporting events bring people together. Whether it be watching or playing it’s just great to come together and fight (or cheer) for victory.
Music – As I am writing this my roommate’s friends are singing and dancing around the apartment to Shakira and they ‘made’ me stop to sing along. I don’t know the words but the beat and the moves are international! Also, I felt a lot more comfortable last night when I got into a cab and he was playing a great Tony Bennett song. I told him I liked the song and although he didn’t respond… I could tell we were bonding.
What else brings people together?
