Smokers

My friend Scott just wrote a great post about how smoking makes otherwise fantastic, smart, caring, loving people stupid, careless, mean, and selfish. Smoking destroys people's health, and I don't think destroys is a strong enough word. I started to write a response but then decided to post it instead.

Thank you for writing that, but, unfortunately, even if the people in your family who smoke read this (I know at least one of them), they might think about it for a minute, but then forget it. I know this because of years of trying the same thing with my dad. I hate to be such a pessimist, but that is what happens after years of telling someone you love that they are hurting themselves, wasting money and frustrating you to no end. This is not to say that those people won't respect your wishes of not smoking around you or your family, they will, and by doing this they feel they are justified in their disgusting habit. What they don't realize is that they are really eating into the time you have to spend with them and choosing the cigarette over you. This may be harsh, but it's true.

It really has to be up to the smoker to quit. My mom is a great example of this. She finally decided it was right for her to quit. And she hasn't smoked in 3.5 years and I am extremely proud of her for this. That the smoker won't decide to quit based on medical evidence and the pleas of family and friends may be very selfish on the part of the smoker, but there must've been something subliminal in the advertisements in the 60s and 70s for smoking telling people the smoking was as harmless as a fly. It is something I will never understand.

I usually think about the Different Strokes episode when Gary Coleman's character's uncle/some sort of relative has to go have a lung removed because he smoked for years, and the last shot of him is walking out the door to the hospital, lighting up a cigarette. It is just such a foreign concept to me, I can't even begin to comprehend.