storyscape

The theme this week is “leaves” and I just couldn’t bring myself to either pull out a photo I’d already taken, or simply go outside and photograph dead leaves.

So I decided on tobacco leaves.

When I was growing up my mom smoked, and in fact I think she smoked while she was pregnant with me (at that time the hazards of nicotine were largely unknown.) Cigarettes were everywhere back then: on TV commercials, in magazines; there were cigarette machines next to most coke machines. I even remember when smoking on planes was allowed; cigarettes weren’t completely outlawed on commercial flights until the late nineties!

Today, most of the smokers I know don’t even smoke in their own homes; they typically go outside if they want to light up. I happen to live in a city where a ban prohibits smoking in public buildings as well as most restaurants and bars (which I’m grateful for) but believe it or not, I’m an ex-smoker. In early college I was a two-pack per-day girl; I lived on Marlboro Lights and diet cola. Quitting smoking took some major effort, but I’m glad I did it. My husband’s father died of lung cancer in his early 50’s; my grandmother had emphysema, which in turn caused the congestive heart failure that eventually claimed her life. Both were smokers.

Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke cause more than 440,000 premature deaths each year in the United States. Of these premature deaths, about 40 percent are from cancer, 35 percent are from heart disease and stroke, and 25 percent are from lung disease. Smoking is the leading cause of premature, preventable death in this country.

Yeah, I remember thinking that I wish all the non-smokers would chill out and quit whining about secondhand smoke. I used to inwardly roll my eyes when people said my smoke bothered them. That’s ridiculous. They just want to have something to complain about.

But now, smoke really does bother me, as in, my eyes water, my sinuses cloud up and my throat hurts when I’m around too much of it. Several people I love smoke, but I won’t nag them. I do, however, hope they’ll find the courage to give it up because time really does pass in the blink of an eye and before they know it they’ll be my age… and wishing they had quit.