Part of the Conundrum
In contemplating my desired return to smoking my pipes, there are two considerations that I am working through that are challenging to figure out:
A.
One issue revolves around health risks. It is a given that smoking tobacco is not a healthy pursuit. But, pursuant to that, there are different LEVELS of risk. From the many decades of study of physiology, I have understanding and knowledge that of the methods of smoking tobacco, smoking a pipe has consistently been shown to be associated statistically significantly LESS risk than other methods of smoking tobacco. However, that does not mean there is NO risk.
In contemplating the above, I believe there *IS* a LEVEL of indulgence I could engage in with pipe smoking where the level of risk in this way would be quite low. I just need to determine where that "quite low" point is for me.
Yet, there is another consideration.... and this consideration is important in its own accord, but actually it also influences "A" above:
B.
The second issue is related to how I "respond" to smoking my pipes again. What will it be like for me? How will I feel? How will it shape my resolve?
Having refrained from my beloved pipes for roughly 3.75 years at this point, I can imagine four different ways I may respond to smoking my pipes again:
1. I can imagine the experience being as shockingly vivid, utterly beautiful, and emotionally intoxicating as it was when I first sampled my father's Sir Walter Raleigh as a young kid. It was magical and was pure bliss from the first draws on the stem of the pipe. Having been away for these 3.75 years could easily have reset my neurons to behave in this sort of fashion like they did when I was a kid and for the first few years of pipe smoking.
(If the above were to occur, which I could imagine being the case since I have been away from them so long that I may have a "novice" tobacco brain again.... I am truthfully not sure if I have enough gumption or perseverance to resist smoking excessively if this euphoric state occurs.)
2. Or, I could imagine the experience being akin to the reliable, gentle, consistent comfort and pleasure that pipe smoking provided for me for the many decades after the incredible experiences of it in my youth quieted some.
(If the above were to occur.... I think this would be the perfect scenario. I *believe* I have enough stubborn determination to wrangle myself into whatever low-level indulgence I think I would determine would satisfy the "low level" risk desired in A. Yet, if the indulgence rate (number of pipes I can have) is very low (remember, I am still trying to figure out what would be a relatively safe "low level").... might it end up being too much "work" to only indulge sporadically?)
3. Or, I could imagine the return being bland and uninspired. What if I find my cherished memories actually have become hyperbole and exaggeration? What if my return just feels like "nothing special" or "nothing valuable"?
(If the above occurs... this would be disappointing, but I think it would be rather easy to maintain life as a pipe smoker at "low risk" or even less... because I would not think I would have much desire or compulsion to indulge other than once or twice a year for "reminiscing" purposes.
4. Or (as shocking as it seems to me when I write it)... I *MIGHT* actually find my pipes and pipe tobaccos to be DISTASTEFUL and UNPLEASANT. I *might* actively dislike them.
(If this were to occur, I think I would feel quite sad. Although perhaps the most healthful route, I would never imagine ever finding pipes unpleasant.)
With the above two considerations, I think I have at least identified the work I must do and also identified the potential impacts I may experience. I think this may be helpful as I work towards trying to return to this lovely hobby in a way that a) is on my terms, b) is lower risk, c) is managable, d) is not feeling like hard work, and e) is sustainable.
PipeTobacco
5 Comments:
It seems as though you have outlined a series of win-win scenarios, Professor!
If you find your pipes distasteful, you'll still have the old tasteful memories, yet you'll also have a prod to help you continue to abstain. I doubt this will be the scenario that occurs, though, as you have described recent reveries in which the vivid memory of the pleasant tastes and feelings still has a positive effect on you. But if you do find out that you are no longer so firmly drawn to your pipes, it will be no loss doing without them.
At the other extreme, what if you find after your first couple of pipes that you can't restrain yourself, and you go through a period of what you might call "excessive" indulgence in pipe smoking? I would suggest that you not let it worry you "too much" -- just as newlyweds may engage in certain activity two or three times daily for a while, they eventually settle into a more manageable long-term routine of pleasurable activity. Surely, even if you go overboard for a few days or even weeks of extreme indulgence, you'll find yourself settling in to a more moderate pattern after a while. Again, no loss.
Between those two extremes, if you find yourself feeling that your pipe smoking is "bland and uninspired" you could very easily accept it as a minimal part of your life, or even work your way back to abstaining. No loss.
The only aspect I see missing from your thoughtful analysis is the matter of OTHER pipe smokers. You used to enjoy your pipes with your father and father-in-law. Is there a nearby tobacconist you could make an effort to frequent often enough to give you a sense of community in whatever choices you make? Or is there a location near you, maybe a room, maybe a favored outdoors spot, where you previously enjoyed pipes with your father and father-in-law? Maybe starting out by smoking there could give you at least some sense of the community to which you still want to belong, even if (much like the "community of the saints") most members of that community are no longer physically present to you?
Just a few thoughts. I'm sure I'm far from the only reader who'll look forward to whatever further steps you take in your decision-making process. Best wishes, Professor!
Professor...I long for the day when you take up your pipe again. I look forward to reading that blog entry regardless of the result for you. It will have been YOUR decision...and as is your habit, you will disseminate every detail with your vivid description. Maybe the bland to awful result will happen...but I highly doubt it. I remember your posts from about ten years ago. Your passion for the habit came out in your entries; vivid, colorful, and poetic. The packing, the melding of the flame to leaf, the beautiful smoke landscapes of that would fill the air, the aroma, the camaraderie in the deer-cabin as you smoked with the other men...You brought all of that to beautiful life.
Not to influence your process, but I took up the pipe partially because of your loving odes to it and the peaceful, pleasant contemplation that is associated with it. I still consider the pipe to be "work" still...the time needed to smoke a bowl, the packing, the lighting, the fiddling...It's more than a habit or hobby. It's more of a school of thought and I evolve toward it at a glacial pace. But I have gotten so much out the lifestyle- the camaraderie, the new friends I've gotten to know (which I consider you to be despite my irregular responses.) Pipe smoking can only be a good thing whereas cigarette smoking seems to be a mindless, definitely unhealthy habit.
Basically, I'm saying I'm very happy and grateful to have crossed your path, Professor. You seem a good and thoughtful human being...the very aspects at the center of what I consider pipe-smoking to be all about.
It may be all those things at different times. Will you feel guilt at taking it back up again? Will it seem like coming home? Will the reality tarnish your memories of it? None of those are answerable unless you try it. Not that I'm encouraging that. My husband died of lung cancer so I'm not fond of smoking of any kind.
Pros and Cons list, that me. As I got older I then put in consequences list.
Coffee is on and stay safe
I don't look at pipe smoking as a hobby. It is an absolute pleasure, and a helpmate when I need to concentrate. Pipe smoking, unlike cigarettes, isn't just the need for nicotine and; it is a particular pipe at a particular time that is like visiting with a friend.
You don't chain smoke a pipe as a nervous reaction; You don't grab for your pipe in a time of stress; You light your pipe at at time of contemplation and leisure.
My fondest memories of pipe smoking is sitting around a camp fire with a cup of coffee royal and leisurely puffing on my pipe.
Damn, I miss it too.
the Ol'Buzzard
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