Smoking

Have you ever done something stupid? I have. We all have. It’s unavoidable. Most of us try to avoid doing these things, and sometimes in our zeal we like to paint with wide sweeping strokes exactly what you should or should not do. Sure, processed GMO foods aren’t as healthy as their organic counterparts, but does that mean you need to break the bank to eat healthily? It might, especially if you or someone in your family suffers from poor health and can’t handle any more stresses. Then again, there may be times when you should just go for the cheap food. If you’re broke, in college, working two jobs, and still barely scraping by, perhaps you shouldn’t buy the grass-fed organic beef. If you’re in a different position in life, it might make sense to buy some good quality food, and fill in the holes with whatever else you can find. Although we can still hold that organic food is better for you, there is still room for the other stuff based on where you are in life at the time. You can’t make eating healthy foods all the time a hard-and-fast rule for everybody, because we’re not the same and have different priorities.

How about smoking? It’s pretty much agreed across the board that smoking has negative health repercussions, and based on that alone we might just say that nobody should ever smoke. But that leaves out what the section in bold above says. Just replace that bolded section with ‘based on what you think is an acceptable amount of risk for the pleasure to be gained’, and see how the argument is basically the same. Some may choose not to smoke, stating that the risks are too great, but they mustn’t impose their choices on others who may very well think it’s not that bad a tradeoff. We can still live together peacefully, despite having different beliefs on smoking.

I myself enjoy a good pipe now and then. It’s always pleasant to sit out the front porch as evening comes on, gently rocking back and forth in your chair, talking with friends about anything and everything that comes up. I’ve had many worthwhile conversations in such a way, and it’s been well worth my time. I don’t smoke often, it’s never been a constant habit of mine, but I do enjoy it from time to time. We could have a whole ‘nuther discussion on different types of smoking, what’s better than what, and where I draw the line, but that’s just it. It’s where I draw the line, not you; where your line is is for you to decide. Granted, there is definitely a way to go too far, but that’s where wisdom comes in. As my professor was famous for always saying, “It’s a wisdom issue”. And it is. That’s something for you to wrestle with. And if we come to different conclusions, that’s totally fine: we can have a good discussion about it and try to convince each other of a better way to approach it. If we never get on the same page, that’s fine too: it’s not the end of the world. We’ll live.

Now, the attentive reader may have followed the argument laid out in the previous paragraphs and conclude that my worldview is based totally on personal beliefs and feelings. Let me add one major addition: the above argument only works for things that are not explicitly right or explicitly wrong: the gray areas, or wisdom issues as you might say. How can we know which things are right or wrong? That, my friend, is a discussion for another day.