Out on the town, you watch as your good friend Bill lights-up and sucks down a deliciously deep puff, and then lays the pack on the table between you.
Cindy, your talkative co-worker, blows smoke your way while gloriously waving her cigarette like a conductor's baton.
Arthur and Denise, two smoking strangers, gravitate toward one another and engage in light-hearted conversation while guarding a store's entrance.
While stopped at a light, in the car beside you, Ellen inhales a deep and relaxing puff.
"Oh but to again share in the joys of smoking," you think to yourself, "to puff, to taste, to blow, then relax."
The joys of smoking? Joy?
Yesterday, Bill stepped in a pile of dog dung but failed to notice until he turned and was puzzled by the strange brown tracks across his sky blue carpet that led to his right shoe. Bill's sniffer has been almost useless for more than 20 years.
A pack-and-a-half a day smoker, he's experienced two cases of pneumonia over the past 3 winters, with the last one putting him in bed for 6 days. Struggling for each breath, Bill still managed to smoke a couple each day. His doctor has pleaded with him for years to stop. But, having already tried and failed using every new product his doctor recommended, he feels like a total and complete failure.
Cindy's two teenage sons harass her almost daily about her smoking. They can't walk anywhere as a family without her cigarette smoke finding the boys. When it does, they make her want to crawl into a hole, as they both start coughing and gagging as if dying. When smoking, they never walk together. It's either ahead or behind for mom.
Her parents are non-smokers. She dreads the seven-hour drive to their home next week but can no longer make excuses for visiting only once in 3 years. Cindy knows that they'll pass three rest areas along the interstate, but it will be difficult to fib about having to go to the bathroom at all three. Two will have to do.
The date of the trip arrives. She skips making breakfast to ensure that the boys will demand that they stop to eat along the way. Cindy shakes her head after coming back in from loading up the car. Not only does she have a cigarette in her hand, the ashtray on the table is smoking one too.
Before leaving town, she stops to fill up with gas. She feels far more secure after stuffing three new packs into her purse while sneaking two quick puffs on the way back to the car.
Arthur, a 54-year-old pack-a-day smoker, has small cell lung cancer in his upper right lobe. His fast-growing tumor is now almost three months old and a little bigger than an orange. As he sits rolling coins to purchase the 20 milligrams of mandatory daily nicotine needed to stay within his comfort zone, he does not yet know he has cancer.
Although he has twice coughed up a small bit of bloody mucus, he quickly dismissed it both times. Frankly, he just doesn't want to know. There is a bit of chest pain but that's nothing new, as chest tightness has occurred on and off for the past couple of years.
Additional thick bloody mucus will soon scare Arthur into a doctor visit and a chest x-ray. The delay will cost him a lung.
During the 4 months that follow, he'll battle hard to save his life. In the end, Arthur will lose. His fate is the same as 92% diagnosed with stage III small cell lung cancer, death within five years.
A workaholic Ellen has done very well financially. Her life seems to have everything except companionship.
A two-pack-a-day smoker, she constantly smells like a walking tobacco factory and often turns heads and noses when entering a room. A serious chain-smoker, she tells those around her that she enjoys her cigarettes.
Deep down, she knows that she is a drug addict and believes that she just can't quit. Her car windows, house blinds, and forehead continually share a common guest, a thin oily film of tobacco tar. Ellen has a date next Friday with a pack-a-day smoker named Ed. They'll find comfort in sharing their addictions.
Denise started smoking at age 13 while her lungs were still developing. Constantly clearing her throat, now, month by month her breathing capacity continues to slowly deteriorate. Smoking lines and wrinkles above and below her lips have aged a once attractive face far quicker than its 32 years.
Considered "cool" when she became hooked, the government has since banned smoking in all public buildings. The headline in the local paper she's holding is about the city proposing a ban on smoking in the park across the street.
About to lose her smoking park bench and feeling like a hopelessly addicted social outcast, a single tear works its way down her cheek.
Why? Because 15 pounds overweight to begin with, a year ago Denise successfully broke free for almost 2 months by exchanging cigarettes for a new crutch called food. She threw in the towel after outgrowing her entire wardrobe. Three months following relapse and still depressed over her defeat, nearly all the new weight remains with her.
Already on high-blood pressure medication, Denise is about to become a regular user of anti-depressants too.
The joy of smoking? Joy?
Fortunately for Denise, a caring friend will tell her about a free online forum called WhyQuit.com. There, Denise will discover the core principles underlying her almost two decades of chemical dependency upon nicotine.
She'll develop the patience, outlook, and understanding needed to navigate this temporary period of re-adjustment called recovery. She'll also develop the mental skills and healthy body needed to successfully tackle her unwanted pounds. How? Just one ounce at a time.
All that matters are the next few minutes and each is entirely do-able. There will always be only one rule that comes with a 100% guarantee of success for all who follow it ... no nicotine today!
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Published in the USA