Smoke Away

Can someone please tell me why anyone would ever want to smoke? Although it’s a pet peeve of mine (as is the term “pet peeve”), this is not an angry or rhetorical question. It’s not a smart-ass remark or an angry statement. I am sincerely asking this as an honest question, because I’m looking for an answer. No one has ever been able to give me a good answer. I have lived my entire life with family members and friends who smoke and they have never been able to convince me of a good reason to do so. They’ve given me reasons, sure, just never ones that meant anything.                

They tell me being drunk makes them want a cigarette, but I still don’t understand. Despite what most people think, I’ve been drunk from time to time and I never wanted a cigarette. In fact with weakened inhibitions, I would actually say things such as “Put that shit out before I stab you in the eye.” People claim it calms them. Why is it then when I so much as smell cigarette smoke, I get agitated and am suddenly urged to stab someone’s eye?

When someone claims to “need” a cigarette, I am not the least bit sorry for them, because in actuality, they don’t. No one needs one. All they have to do is not place it in the mouth, not light it, and not inhale. I’ve been consistently not smoking my entire life now. It’s never once been difficult. If someone could even describe to me what it’s like to desire a smoke, I will be ecstatic to finally somewhat understand this mysterious yearning no one has ever been able to explain to me.                                  

Man has always hated or feared what he does not understand and I don’t understand smoking, so it’s only natural for me to hate it. I don’t understand it because it has no positive effects and a nearly infinite number of negative ones. The various health problems it causes is too long of a list for my patience, but the most well-known effects associated with smoking are A) the smell, B) making a sick organization like the tobacco industry rich, and of course C) dying, which is led up to by all the physical damages it does.