[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by M G F on April 4, 2007, 7:35 pm, in reply to "Re: A picture is worth a thousand words" I think it is difficult for a non-smoker to fully grasp some of the nuances of smoking, particularly the relationship the smoker has with her vice. These nuances are also frequently not realized or fully understood by the smoker, because they live in different levels of our unconscious mind. Although most of us do it publicly, smoking is an intensely personal activity. The smoker is interacting with _her_ body through an activity that she knows to be harmful to it. The damage she is doing and the potential for fatal consequences probably aren’t the primary motivation, but they are there and they are known. In my opinion, to assume that a smoker in this day and age believes that she is somehow immune to the Risks, is honestly not aware that her health has already been affected by smoking, or believes that even thought smoking is harmful, she is personally immune, does the smoker a genuine disservice. Just because she doesn't talk about it, and just because she continues to smoke without intimating any awareness or concern about the risks, does not mean that she isn't aware of what she is doing every time she fills her lungs with smoke. Her body, her lungs, her health, her decision; and that decision extends to how she chooses to relate to the risk she is taking. Just as my embracing the risk does not mean that I _want_ to die of some smoking related illness, neither does a smoker not openly embracing the risk mean that she thinks she is immune to smoking’s negative health effects.
I'll begin by reassuring everyone that I have in no way thought of our recent discussions as a debate. For me they have been an interesting exploration of an aspect or two of the subject. (For me, they have been all too hurried and brief due to time limitations, but so it goes) I agree with all of vesperae's hypotheses below, but this isn't a reply to that post.
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