Still Thinking

Ash Wednesday is next week, the start of Lent.  I want to commit to some solid course of action about my pipe.  I have actually three different mindsets I keep vacillating between:

1.  Get rid of the pipes and smoking entirely for Lent.  In the back of my mind is the thought behind this is that I should take a hammer to all my pipes, lighters, and accessories.  I should even flush all the various pipe to tobaccos I have down the toilet because if I complete Lent successfully, I should be able to quit forever.   

2.  Another part of me wants to give up my current, fairly heavy consumption of pipe tobacco for Lent, but smoke in the fashion I envision would be safe and non-controlling.  Namely, I would like to smoke one afternoon a week, usually when I go to visit my elderly father-in-law.  This side of me is admittedly enamored still with the "romantic" notion of pipes and pipe smoking being fun and enjoyable.

3.  A third part of me wants to basically say "to hell with it" and just continue to smoke my pipe as often as I wish, with the  notion that I will STOP contemplating quitting or reducing my consumption and just live fully as a committed pipe smoker for the rest of my life.  In some ways this may be a "defeatist" attitude... but it also is a freeing one as well, for I can go back to thinking about other things and worrying about other things instead of the damn pipe and pipe tobaccos. A major goal I would strive for if I did select this, is to more embrace the activity and find a way to quit all the worry.

I have to figure out a way to firmly commit to one of the three ways.  Yet, I have not yet been able to do so.  There are pluses and minuses to each route.

PipeTobacco