What most people fail to observe in their endless bickering about how the smoke bothers their children, their dog, and their nose, is that they are so selfish that they cannot appreciate another person's enjoyment and pleasure. They take the time to complain about people smoking because the obvious pain the cigarette another guy standing twenty feet away from them smoking inflicts, is just too much to handle for any conservative mind who still thinks that air conditioners are a pretty neat idea. After all, its only smoke. The same kind of smoke which lies like a thick carpet over the bigger cities, but that is ok. Cigarettes, no, pollution, yes.

The pleasure you get from a cigarette comes even before you actually light it up. Your mind and body automatically, without you even thinking about it, gets excited by the prospect of lighting up another heaven sent cancer stick. Automatically, you reach out for the pack and graciously remove one of the cigarettes from the pack so that it doesn't break. These movements are painfully from experience pinned into your mind after a certain while, and it gives you a certain feel of kindness and tenderness you would otherwise show your girlfriend/boyfriend or any person who deserves the respect from you that you deem appropriate. This excercise is done each and every time you do this, even if you, consciously, are not aware of it happening.
The next pleasure is, of course, the inhale of the smoke, which just shortened your life by a couple of seconds. This is a fact which most smokers around the world deems unworthy of attention at the point where the first inhale of the cigarette is being performed. Worrying too much about the future is generally not a good idea as it tends to clutter your mind when you really should think about how to get to work before lunch, and what excuse you make up for your boss when you arrive there, for being so insanely late.

The life shortening thing

Smokers have one enemy; the non-smokers. There are those people who constantly nag the smokers with cute little facts that they dug out of a newspaper or a Nicorette commercial, which clearly states that you just shortened your life a couple of minutes. The general advice in the smokers community is to stay away from these people, and if you are unfortunate enough to have to discuss these issues with them, hit them over the head with an empty cigarette pack. This is just to prove the point that you do not give a damn, and nothing the non-smoker could ever say will have any impact on the choice you made in your early teens. Not that you probably can alter the choice without serious pain and suffering. Smokers admire those who have the willpower to stop smoking, but if those people then turn anti-smoke, they were never real smokers anyway. I am not saying that smoke is a win-win situation, because it isn't. All I am saying is that people should enjoy what they have "in the now" and be happy with that.

Little facts

Yes, the facts. Your life is shortened. Your appearance isn't what it used to be. Lung Cancer. Sickness. All kinds of other stuff.

Take a chance will you.

If all these things still make people smoke, it must also be something good about it. Right?

My observations:

1. Relaxing.
2. Refreshing.
3. Good taste.
4. Improved social life (Its a fact!)

I could go on with quite a long list, but it would only identify me as a smoker, which I am.

However, I am not so narrow-minded to not see the faults.

I can understand that smoke bothers non-smokers. Of course it does!
However, we have survived worse things than a little smoke in our faces. The problem with us humans is that we focus on the things at hand all the time, and usually never take the time to contemplate about possible consequences of our actions or learn from history and so on and so forth. We alway assume that there aren't any more to learn, and when we learn something new, we get surprised and probably interested in what we have discovered...

...that we are not perfect.

Social

When people gather together to smoke, even if they do not know each other, they somehow have a common bond which binds them together in opposition to others. They feel different, rebelling. Non-smokers don't like the fact that they smoke, and the smokers retaliate with ganging together to face the endless stream of annoying facts. This is universal. Therefore, since the group mentioned all have a common goal, that is, to finish that cigarette and go back to whatever they were doing before they got the urge to smoke, it is more friendly towards other members, and ends up getting to know them. Humans are always seeking for comfort and pleasure from others, so that they do not have to feel so alone all the time. We seek partners, friends, and so on. This means that the smokers have the opportunity to aquire new friendships much faster than non-smokers because of the gang mentality mentioned above. I deem this as a good thing, and if you want hot news from, say, the management of your company, go smoke in the smoking room. You'd be surprised.

Psychology people!

Final Thoughts

There is a gain, and there is a loss. Most things are. It's a matter of translating this thought into all things, and you will eventually see that all things are relative. You can be surprised by the stuff people come up with when they are trying to convice people stop doing something, or the other way around, encouraging something. So, since this is so common, why not leave it as it is? Why not accept a fact for what it is, for good and evil?

If you still haven't got my point, go have a smoke and think it over.

Inter

19.07.01. Front Page

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