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I saw something recently that reminded me anew how much I can't stand smokers. So if you are one and don't feel like being preached to today, just mosey on along, pardner.
I try to have a live-and-let-live attitude in general, and I largely feel that people should by all means be free to do what they want as long as they aren't hurting anyone else. You have every right to smoke in front of me. However, your right to visit Marlboro Country ends where my oxygen supply begins. Your right to kill yourself slowly ends where my attempt to try to live a somewhat healthier life begins.
When I get a report on a patient plagued with multiple diseases and various organ failures, I feel a little sorry for them. Unless the doc mentions their 20-pack-year smoking history. Then, I'll admit it, my sympathy tends to wane. My first thought actually is something like, "Oh, well then they had it coming." I also feel a small sense of relief, that all these maladies in one person have a definable cause, furthermore a cause that will never creep up on me unexpectedly. If you are 80 years old and fell under nicotine's spell before people knew the dangers that's one thing. But anyone that became addicted at any point after the Surgeon General started emblazoning warnings on every pack really have only themselves to blame. Tough love, but there it is.
I've tried smoking before, so I'm not pointing fingers without any experience. I didn't take it up because a.) I knew enough about my enormously addictive personality even at 13 to know that if I started I would never, ever stop, and b.) it tasted absolutely horrible. It is a pointless, expensive, self-destructive, filthy, disgusting habit. So why does anyone take it up?
1. Peer pressure: Can be overwhelming (I guess) but be strong. Be your own person. These people whose opinions matter so much aren't going to pay your medical bills when you contract rectal cancer.
2. Smoking makes people cool/sexy: Because what ISN'T sexy about stained teeth, stinking breath and clothes, leathery, prematurely wrinkled skin and a persistent, hacking cough normally associated with men 3-4 times your age? Nothing comes immediately to mind.
3. Smoking helps with weight loss: See above. I'd rather be with a pleasantly plump nonsmoker than a rake-thin smoker any day of the week.
4. Smoking gives you something to do with your hands in social situations: Take up juggling. Everyone loves jugglers.
5. Smoking makes you feel like an adult: Unless you are underage and smoking (then shame on you), you ARE an adult. You don't need a cancer stick to alert people to that fact.
6. You use smoking as a way to unconsciously distance yourself from people: I've been doing that my whole life without any visual aids whatsoever. It just takes a little practice, grasshopper.
So what inspired this little diatribe? Tery and I were in line at our local King Soopers grocery store when I noticed a kid in front of us, barely a day past his 18th birthday, with an unlit cigarette butt dangling casually from his mouth. Oooh, gimme some of THAT....someone so weak-willed he has to suck on a soggy butt because he can barely wait to get back outside again for his fix. I'll bet he has the most delicious kisses! Shex-Shay! Even I know enough to realize the correct etiquette is to stick your cig behind your ear (equally yummy). I turned to Tery and pointed him out using a normal speaking voice. We both exclaimed about how unutterably cool he looked loudly enough for him to sneak a glance behind him when we finished (probably to see the chicks he thought were checking him out. Sarcasm is completely wasted in this state). He looked even cooler when he had to pull his unlit butt out to speak to the cashier. I found it really hard to stop sniggering the whole way home.
I try to have a live-and-let-live attitude in general, and I largely feel that people should by all means be free to do what they want as long as they aren't hurting anyone else. You have every right to smoke in front of me. However, your right to visit Marlboro Country ends where my oxygen supply begins. Your right to kill yourself slowly ends where my attempt to try to live a somewhat healthier life begins.
When I get a report on a patient plagued with multiple diseases and various organ failures, I feel a little sorry for them. Unless the doc mentions their 20-pack-year smoking history. Then, I'll admit it, my sympathy tends to wane. My first thought actually is something like, "Oh, well then they had it coming." I also feel a small sense of relief, that all these maladies in one person have a definable cause, furthermore a cause that will never creep up on me unexpectedly. If you are 80 years old and fell under nicotine's spell before people knew the dangers that's one thing. But anyone that became addicted at any point after the Surgeon General started emblazoning warnings on every pack really have only themselves to blame. Tough love, but there it is.
I've tried smoking before, so I'm not pointing fingers without any experience. I didn't take it up because a.) I knew enough about my enormously addictive personality even at 13 to know that if I started I would never, ever stop, and b.) it tasted absolutely horrible. It is a pointless, expensive, self-destructive, filthy, disgusting habit. So why does anyone take it up?
1. Peer pressure: Can be overwhelming (I guess) but be strong. Be your own person. These people whose opinions matter so much aren't going to pay your medical bills when you contract rectal cancer.
2. Smoking makes people cool/sexy: Because what ISN'T sexy about stained teeth, stinking breath and clothes, leathery, prematurely wrinkled skin and a persistent, hacking cough normally associated with men 3-4 times your age? Nothing comes immediately to mind.
3. Smoking helps with weight loss: See above. I'd rather be with a pleasantly plump nonsmoker than a rake-thin smoker any day of the week.
4. Smoking gives you something to do with your hands in social situations: Take up juggling. Everyone loves jugglers.
5. Smoking makes you feel like an adult: Unless you are underage and smoking (then shame on you), you ARE an adult. You don't need a cancer stick to alert people to that fact.
6. You use smoking as a way to unconsciously distance yourself from people: I've been doing that my whole life without any visual aids whatsoever. It just takes a little practice, grasshopper.
So what inspired this little diatribe? Tery and I were in line at our local King Soopers grocery store when I noticed a kid in front of us, barely a day past his 18th birthday, with an unlit cigarette butt dangling casually from his mouth. Oooh, gimme some of THAT....someone so weak-willed he has to suck on a soggy butt because he can barely wait to get back outside again for his fix. I'll bet he has the most delicious kisses! Shex-Shay! Even I know enough to realize the correct etiquette is to stick your cig behind your ear (equally yummy). I turned to Tery and pointed him out using a normal speaking voice. We both exclaimed about how unutterably cool he looked loudly enough for him to sneak a glance behind him when we finished (probably to see the chicks he thought were checking him out. Sarcasm is completely wasted in this state). He looked even cooler when he had to pull his unlit butt out to speak to the cashier. I found it really hard to stop sniggering the whole way home.
