It was Mark Twain who said giving up smoking is easy - he'd done it thousands of times. Mr Hood is spot on. I'm gradually expanding right now, too, as my habit was binned in the summer, the day I was sent for a CT scan of my lungs.
It's not smoking that draws me to the post. It's "nothing to lose". Last weekend but one, I was in conversation with an expert - Dutch no less - on the Scott South Pole expedition. I had cited the example of Lawrence Oates in a post called https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/i-am-just-going-outside-and-may-be (some time), and, during Covid, I had cited the example of Stanley Williams and Ray Washington who, if you didn't know, founded the gang known as Crips.
What impelled Oates was, I'd thought, the fact he had nothing to lose, and could offer his comrades a chance of survival by sacrificing his life heroically. My Dutch friend opined that that was possible; but what was also possible was that he couldn't stand Robert Falcon Scott, and went out into the blizzard to be spared the man's self-righteous idiocy.
What makes Crips Crips is their 25-year life-expectancy. What made Napoleon Napoleon was his eternal life-expectancy. Crips have nothing to lose; Napoleon had a battle to lose, but he didn't lose eternity.
People underestimate what they have to lose and yet, whilst we fear death like the devil, we tend not to fear the devil, and claim a place in Heaven for all those who depart before us, here in our Garden of Earthly Delights, as if Heaven was our only yearning on Earth. If we can appreciate our our own paradoxes for what they are, and embrace them, we can understand the universe.
Quitting is easy. Done it hundreds of times. 5 years and counting since the last time. And about 10kilos I didn’t have as a smoker. Don’t miss the cough though. Great post!
I start NEARLY every year pledging that I'm going to diet, exercise, cut back on snacks, etc. A week into the New Year & I go, " who am I kidding ? HA ! "
I thought that keeping to a budget ( DRAT ! ) would make it easier, tightening my belt means that I loosen up someplace else. B. F. Skinner would enjoy watching people's resolve repeatedly evaporate.
A photo is worth thousands of words (that we don't have to write)...I adore how this post makes my fast-moving mind slow down and then stop. The image(s) holds me, I study each, and progressively feel a sadness that unveils a memory. My dying mother striking a match and alighting another Parliament, then my father (who would die 18 months after she died) with a Marlboro in the fingers of his hand that rested on the steering wheel of his Porsche, then all the hours my brother and I spent in that car driving the miles to and from hospitals while she was sick and how that tiny cabin had been filled with a murky, heavy haze. My brother and I smoked every one of those Marlboro's with my dad. No wonder we were so depressed, they were killing themselves in front of us, and killing us, too. Thank you, Richard. Amazing post.
Thank you Jennifer - your thoughtful comment has me reminiscing about my paternal grandmother - she lived with us for the first 8 or so years of my life and everyday you'd walk into her room to say hello with that same heavy haze that you describe ... I used to feel guilty that I made her smoke as i collected the cards they used to put in cigarette packs and I'd be desperate for more - always asking whether she'd finished the pack yet!
To be honest it's quite surprising how few photos of people smoking I actually have - certainly in comparison to the number I have of people on their phones!
"Traditionally the defining moment in a man's life arrives when he looks in his shaving glass and sees his father staring back; but there is a day so much more terrible we rarely speak of it - when he catches himself naked in a full-length mirror, and sees his mother ... "
It was Mark Twain who said giving up smoking is easy - he'd done it thousands of times. Mr Hood is spot on. I'm gradually expanding right now, too, as my habit was binned in the summer, the day I was sent for a CT scan of my lungs.
It's not smoking that draws me to the post. It's "nothing to lose". Last weekend but one, I was in conversation with an expert - Dutch no less - on the Scott South Pole expedition. I had cited the example of Lawrence Oates in a post called https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/i-am-just-going-outside-and-may-be (some time), and, during Covid, I had cited the example of Stanley Williams and Ray Washington who, if you didn't know, founded the gang known as Crips.
What impelled Oates was, I'd thought, the fact he had nothing to lose, and could offer his comrades a chance of survival by sacrificing his life heroically. My Dutch friend opined that that was possible; but what was also possible was that he couldn't stand Robert Falcon Scott, and went out into the blizzard to be spared the man's self-righteous idiocy.
What makes Crips Crips is their 25-year life-expectancy. What made Napoleon Napoleon was his eternal life-expectancy. Crips have nothing to lose; Napoleon had a battle to lose, but he didn't lose eternity.
People underestimate what they have to lose and yet, whilst we fear death like the devil, we tend not to fear the devil, and claim a place in Heaven for all those who depart before us, here in our Garden of Earthly Delights, as if Heaven was our only yearning on Earth. If we can appreciate our our own paradoxes for what they are, and embrace them, we can understand the universe.
Quitting is easy. Done it hundreds of times. 5 years and counting since the last time. And about 10kilos I didn’t have as a smoker. Don’t miss the cough though. Great post!
I start NEARLY every year pledging that I'm going to diet, exercise, cut back on snacks, etc. A week into the New Year & I go, " who am I kidding ? HA ! "
I thought that keeping to a budget ( DRAT ! ) would make it easier, tightening my belt means that I loosen up someplace else. B. F. Skinner would enjoy watching people's resolve repeatedly evaporate.
Loved these images in b & w. Didn’t see the smokers but rather the atmosphere that you connected between snap and onviewer.
I felt the same way when seeing these for the first time.
Oh great!
Thank you Briana!
A photo is worth thousands of words (that we don't have to write)...I adore how this post makes my fast-moving mind slow down and then stop. The image(s) holds me, I study each, and progressively feel a sadness that unveils a memory. My dying mother striking a match and alighting another Parliament, then my father (who would die 18 months after she died) with a Marlboro in the fingers of his hand that rested on the steering wheel of his Porsche, then all the hours my brother and I spent in that car driving the miles to and from hospitals while she was sick and how that tiny cabin had been filled with a murky, heavy haze. My brother and I smoked every one of those Marlboro's with my dad. No wonder we were so depressed, they were killing themselves in front of us, and killing us, too. Thank you, Richard. Amazing post.
Thank you Jennifer - your thoughtful comment has me reminiscing about my paternal grandmother - she lived with us for the first 8 or so years of my life and everyday you'd walk into her room to say hello with that same heavy haze that you describe ... I used to feel guilty that I made her smoke as i collected the cards they used to put in cigarette packs and I'd be desperate for more - always asking whether she'd finished the pack yet!
Love this. What we thought then. What we think now.
I love the "purpose..." picture! Great selection.
Thank you for sharing the habit of millions of people across the world. Photography can be useful sometimes to realize a reality ...
To be honest it's quite surprising how few photos of people smoking I actually have - certainly in comparison to the number I have of people on their phones!
Same on my side ... Maybe because our eyes are not very focused on static people ... I don't know!
This post is amazed me for is reality check
We are mere creatures of habit (s) Rolando!
Sure. And habits, when they are healthy, can be an excellent way of being productive
I tend to live by the Don Paterson aphorism:
"Traditionally the defining moment in a man's life arrives when he looks in his shaving glass and sees his father staring back; but there is a day so much more terrible we rarely speak of it - when he catches himself naked in a full-length mirror, and sees his mother ... "
When it gets to that point. I diet.
Such great photos! Each tells a story, and your comment comes at the image from a different perspective than I expected. Wonderful.
I still miss the damn habit ... bit like London and all the other things that are bad for me.