I’ve never written about smoking because the thought never occurred to me.
If you smoke, you’re killing yourself and seriously hurting those around you. (INCLUDING DEFENSELESS CHILDREN)
Yesterday I was sitting on a park bench overlooking the Hudson River. The sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing. My beautiful baby boy was in his stroller next to me. We were practicing his Italian vocabulary. I had an espresso and a scone (homemade). For a person with very simple needs such as myself, this was as close to perfect as it gets.
UNTIL…An average looking guy in his forties sits down on the bench next to us and lights up a cigarette. Instead of walking away as a mild mannered person should, I asked him nicely (My wife reads this blog so I have to say I asked him nicely) to put out the cigarette. To his defense, he seemed genuinely ashamed at his severe lack of good judgment and he apologized profusely. Then we got to talking about smoking.
He rolled out the two favorite excuses of all smokers:
1. We all have to die sometime and of something
2. He lived near a man who smoked two packs a day and lived to be 106.
My rebuttals:
If you want to cordon yourself off in a sealed room and smoke yourself to death, go get ‘em buddy. But if you choose to smoke anywhere near my son who is not yet capable of speaking up for himself (but he will be soon!) then you’ll have to deal with the likes of me.
We all knew someone who smoked two packs a day and lived to be 100. I really did know someone. He lived up the street, a crusty old Irishman who would throw apples at us if we ventured too close to his yard. But for every 100 year old who smoked, there are thousands, tens of thousands who have choked and suffocated themselves to death and perhaps also contributed to the death of others by smoking.
Have you ever seen someone die of lung cancer brought on by smoking? I have, up close and very personal. He slowly gagged to death, each day losing a little more of his ability to breathe until he finally choked himself to death.
SMOKING. Why are we still talking about this?
Ray Salomone Personal Trainer and Wellness Activist
Blog: www.GrecoRomanWellness.wordpress.com
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