No Smoking

My father died of emphysema when he was, by today's standards, fairly young - just 70. He was a wreck for a number of years before he died, as his lungs failed and he suffered a series of strokes. Even when I was young, though, he was incapable of much physical exertion without needing a rest to catch his breath. He smoked from the time he was very young, probably ten or so, the New York City of the early nineteen hundreds having a considerably different perspective on child smoking than it - and the rest of our society - do today. He smoked Pall Malls, unfiltered, probably at least a pack a day. He smoked at home, in the car, on the train and at work. Only when he was told he wouldn't last much longer did he stop, cold, in his 60's, never to smoke again. Maybe it gave him a few more years, but many of them were pretty crummy for him.

On the other hand, my maternal grandfather also smoked from the time he was a little boy growing up in NYC, but this was the late 1800's. He smoked cigarettes, cigars, pipes and he did so until he died in his 90's, with few, if any, health problems that could be related to his habit. While at a physical late in his life, he asked his doctor if he should stop smoking. The doctor, a wise man, looked helplessly at him and said he didn't see why at this point.

I've never smoked cigarettes. I do smoke an occasional cigar or pipe. The fact that I don't inhale comforts me, but I know that all kinds of nasty things can still develop in my mouth, throat, tongue, etc. But I like something about the ritual of a cigar or a pipe. So I'll balance the risks and benefits. Our society has an unhealthy urge to live risk - free, but of course that wouldn't be living. I'm very cautious in what I do, but I do things that many people think are too risky - scuba, motorcycle, mountain biking. It isn't that I'm a daredevil, or looking for cheap thrills, but I enjoy doing these things, and the odds of injury are not high if one is careful. We all find the risk level we are comfortable with; some people look at me and say 'no way.' I look at others, like those who climb thousand foot cliffs with no rope and say 'no way.'

It was George Carlin who said that everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot and everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac.