.
Why My Brother Frustrates Me

In my previous post, I posted a link to my brother's "Lectures On Life" blog. Not only am I a little frustrated that he posts infrequently at best, but worse... his latest post typifies an aspect of his personality I find very frustrating to deal with.

My brother is often ashamed of himself for the most assinine of reasons. The pipe is a classic example of this. He is literally ashamed he smokes a pipe. How preposterous is that? His logic and reasons are something I have difficulty grappling with and just do not understand. It seems to go something like this... 1) He thinks all smoking is wrong or bad (So why the hell smoke in the first place if you REALLY think this is so?), 2) He is ashamed of himself for smoking (I do not fathom why anyone would think pipe smoking is something to be ashamed about.). His shame is a universal shame because he smokes and it would not matter if it were cigarettes, cigars, or a pipe (he only smokes a pipe), 3) The way he talks about this matter, it seems he equates smoking a pipe to being akin to being a drug abuser (utterly preposterous), and 4) He seems to think there is a difference between he and I because of our ages in terms of our perspectives (Bah!).

I find this so utterly frustrating because not only is it akin to utter nonsense, it is a manner in which to simply be rude to family. Our father was a pipe smoker, our grandfathers were pipe smokers. Smoking pipes and pipe tobacco are not evil things, they are not abuses, they are simply pleasant hobbies.... even genteel hobbies for us to enjoy. Why does it all have to seem so negative to him. I simply cannot understand his emotions on this.

PipeTobacco