Do you smoke? If so, you need to stop. Does somebody you know smoke. If so, you need to tell them to stop. In addition to making our own choice not to smoke, we all have a responsibility to tell our friends and families to stop smoking.
Are you a smoker?
Smoking is incredibly bad for your health. You will likely die a slow and difficult death because you have chosen to smoke. Your death may seem like an event that will take place in the distant future, but let me assure you, we will all die someday. If you die of a smoking related illness, your death spiral will likely be premature and physically disabling.
Do you know someone that smokes?
You must tell them to stop. Yes, you need to be willing to run the risk of alienating yourself from that person. A good friend will risk temporarily distancing himself from a smoker in order to help that person grow. You are not being a good friend or family member by staying silent. I know it’s easier to keep quiet and mind your own business, but this is one of those times when silence is not golden.
I was profoundly impacted by my dad’s smoking related illness and his premature death due to emphysema. He was the most gentle and kind man I ever knew. He was a generous man that didn’t have a materialistic bone in his body. My dad showed me, by his living example, how to love others. He was and still is my role model.
I am passionate about smoking because I saw what it did to the man I loved and am so fond of. You must understand that my dad started smoking long before there were warnings on the pack. In fact, our government provided cigarettes to soldiers during the Korean War, in which my dad served. My dad knew he should have stopped smoking and even quit for a long period of time following successful lung surgery (he was in his 60s at the time). He had an addiction that I didn’t understand, but one that I would have liked to aggressively confront if I had the knowledge to do so at the time.
He was unable to fully care for himself the last three years of his life. While he was still at home, my mom was able to tend to most of his needs. Later though, he became sick with pneumonia and spent the last eight months of his life in the hospital or a local nursing home. The pneumonia caused my father to become bedridden, which prevented my mom from being able to care for him at home. Let’s just say the last eight months of my father’s life were incredibly difficult for him and my entire family. The hospital and nursing home situation presented our family with choices and challenges we never needed to confront before. We were not prepared; at least, I wasn’t.
I will dive into the nursing home dilemma in another post. The point of this writing is to convince you to stop smoking. If you don’t smoke, the point is to have you confront those you care about. If you need ammunition to understand how difficult and painful smoking related illnesses are, take a walk through the hospital. Look at all of the people on oxygen. Do they look happy?
Smoking can kill those you love. It is a slow and painful killer. If you smoke, you must stop. If you don’t, you must convince those you care about to stop. You have an obligation to do this.