Raise your hands. Give up. You're surrounded...

Recently spent ten days on a team 
project where all but one of us smoke. 
I have not been around any heavy 
smoking since I quit four years ago.
Until now. The habit has become 
more civilized in recent years. It 
tiptoes now where it used to bluster.
It was a great anthropological 
observation on the changes about 
smoking in the 21st century. I was 
regaled on the benefits of tobacco, 
its spiritual significance in rituals, 
its importance in the social fabric 
of communication & camaraderie, 
and its "medicinal benefits of 
calming the soul." I heard people 
beseech me to believe they were 
going to quit soon-just not today. 

For all their excuses and denials, 
I came to the hard realization that 
even after four years without a 
cigarette, I was the most tobacco 
obsessed person I know.  Had I 
turned this obsession into a passion?
That made me think about this 
blog and my anti-smoking persona. 
I suppose that it comes with the territory 
(anyone can find themselves focusing 
about that which they can not ever 
have again… drugs, tobacco, alcohol, 
donuts)…
I am no different than anyone else...

I saw, in them, the hold smoking had 
on me. The RTS Lame Excuses can 
be found on page 58 of the book.
(what's yours?) I had my share before 
I finally got a grip. I sat with the team 
one evening as they smoked to see 
if tobacco still had an impact on me.

It only succeeded in making my eyes 
burn. There appeared no siren to tell 
me to return- only the stark realization 
that quitting did truly save my life. I 
would not be here today had I not quit 
exactly when I did. The blessed thing 
is the temptation is completely gone.

And all this is why I'll keep finding the 
Nicotine Tales. Tobacco stories from
everywhere. I track them. The world is 
full of them. My job is to keep finding 
them for you…and to encourage you 
to be smoke free…and keep laughing...