Random Thought
If I decided to become vegetarian or vegan…. it would be logical in some fashion that I COULD choose to do so and smoke my pipes and pipe tobaccos.
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- I did get my Covid vaccine and my Flu vaccine about 1/2 hour ago (Friday afternoon). They were not keen on my wanting the RSV yet, so that will need to wait. I have scheduled a full day of rest and ample fluids on Saturday (other than swimming and probably Mass). It actually feels rather damn luxurious to have a quiet, unstructured day planned (keeping fingers crossed that no unforeseen calamities ensue). It feels a little sad that it takes a dose of vaccines to get up enough gumption to rest.
- I finished up my weekly mileage (50+ miles) this morning, so that is not a worry this weekend.
- To have dinner be easier to handle and to keep cleanup easier tonight, we are having sub sandwiches. I chose my standard turkey with no cheese but extra spices and peppers and onions.
PipeTobacco
4 Comments:
Usually, we get the flu shot from the doctor, but she didn't get any sent to her this year, so we'll have to hit the pharmacy. I think we have to wait a little longer for the new covid as there has to be some time between the last and this. I'll have to look it up. And the province won't cover us for the RSV this year, so we won't bother. They will only cover for seniors in certain residences, or something like that.
I still need to get my Covid shot but have the others completed, including RSV. Of course, I'm older than you so I have no issue with qualifying for the shots. Sigh. My older daughter was vegan for many years but is now pescatarian. Quite a healthy diet although she's as thin as a rail and has (to me) scarily low blood pressure.
You wrote: "If I decided to become vegetarian or vegan…. it would be logical in some fashion that I COULD choose to do so and smoke my pipes and pipe tobaccos."
Does this mean that by removing one harmful element from your diet (animal products) it could be "logical" to take the risk of adding another potentially harmful element (tobacco) to your lifestyle? I think I probably do such negotiating myself, maybe we all do.
Another thought I have from time to time (and I hope this doesn't offend you -- it shouldn't) is that you have a classic case of addiction. Your fixation on, dreams about smoking your pipes is exactly what millions of people hear every day in AA meetings. If there are Smokers Anonymous meetings you might benefit. I know: you have no time to add another activity to your life but it could be good for your mental health.
Professor, I'm sure Pam J. means well, but I think would be misleading to equate your pipe hankerings with alcoholism.
The one point of similarity would be that you have spent decades training your body to embrace the effects of nicotine. But that's where the similarity ends. An alcoholic has become physically dependent on the effects of alcohol, and will satisfy that craving with whatever form of alcohol is available. I haven't seen you write anything to suggest that you've thought a cigarette or a mouthful of chewing tobacco might be an acceptable alternative to your pipes. If you were merely the victim of a physical addiction, I don't think you would be able to keep your tobaccos and your unlit pipes around. No, like most pipe smokers who didn't start out as cigarette smokers, your attachment to your pipes is not precisely a physical addiction; it's a psychological, emotional, even a spiritual longing that can't be satisfied merely by the hit of nicotine your pipes provide. And unlike the cigarette smoker who is merely a nicotine fiend seeking his next hit of the drug, your pipe smoking addresses something deeper in your psyche, such that on the one hand you can abstain with strength an alcoholic or cigarette smoker lacks, but on the other hand you feel the absence far more deeply, as something more than a physical withdrawal or deprivation.
So, if you are committed to remaining pipeless, you need the counsel of folks like your Capuchins, who can address the deeper stuff that connects you to your pipes and tobaccos. But, if you go back to your pipes, you'll do so rationally and deliberately, with the knowledge that you've returned as an act of volition, not as merely caving in to pangs of withdrawal from a drug.
I hope you had a restful weekend not too much encumbered by vaccine side-effects, and that you're starting another stressful week at the U with renewed energy and purpose. Take care of yourself, Professor!
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