Hoops Of Pleasure

When I was already celebrating my victory over 20 years of “friendship” between me and tobacco, I had one of these last days the unfortunate surprise of being informed about a disease which impairs breathing functionality of approximately 80% of people who had the bad idea of start smoking, followed by the worse idea of not quitting on such a bad habit. Moral of this story: sometimes it is very healthy to be a quitter!

“Emphysema” is the name of my new acquaintance. Sounds like something complex but an emphysema is not more than lung tissues destroyed by years of pleasure coming from two cigarettes per hour, every day, every week, every month and for many years. If you are already worried then be my guest to feel even more because the emphysema is classified as a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is something irreversible. Shortness of breath is the most common symptom of emphysema. Cough, high production of mucus and wheezing are others. The destruction of lung tissues is irreversible but there are many ways to treat this disease to weaken the torment caused by it. Moral of this story: death is the only disease with no treatment⁽¹⁾.

A couple of days after my appointment to the above mentioned doctor I got another vision of my problem by a different doctor. You know, we always want a second opinion when things are noxious to our side… Nevertheless, while I wait for results from a couple of check-ups, I have decided to think a little bit (not much) about my life as a cigarette addicted.

I started smoking like any other kid starts: one’s pulled into the circle by those already in the circle! When one starts smoking, cigarette tastes bad, it burns your throat, makes you getting dizzy, probably nauseous, smells and turns you dazed because you really can’t understand why people smoke! In the day after you are again pulled into the circle by those ones already there who enjoyed quite a lot to watch you, the day before, conducting yourself like a goofy dude… You feel then that this is the price to pay to be accepted in the circle, you pay it, you feel good. After that first time of contradictory feelings and emotions, with maybe a couple of vomits too, you finally see yourself converted to a smoking machine, just like an old Far West train crossing the immense prairies between sand, cactus and vultures…

There is no recommendable figure for how much you should smoke. Simple things don’t have necessarily to be turned to complex and, regarding tobacco, you just smoke it or not. Everything in between it’s nothing more than an exercise of some politicians’ or social worker’s mind. If you smoke, smoke as much as you can handle or as much that can contribute to your happiness. If you don’t smoke, good for you, no money wasted, no health jeopardized. Whether you smoke or not, do it with class, I mean, with total consciousness of what you’re doing. I feel no regrets at all about those gone 20 years of smoke converted to pleasure but I feel no desire at all to become a smoker again. You’ll see that, thinking this way, you’ll accept very well any news coming from your doctor pointing to a short term death (yours!) due to a cancer caused by years and years of hoops of pleasure in the air…

May the gods be with smokers, ex-smokers and the other too…