Everyone enjoys feeling superior. :-) (Unless they have completely conquered their ego and attained absolute equaninity and equality with all beings...such people are 1 in 10,000 or even less than that.)

What really pisses OFF people is when they sense that someone ELSE is feeling superior at their expense, right, Metchosin?

I can understand your irritation over this matter. Your observation of the nonsmoker at the fire is keen and appropriate.

I love sitting at a bonfire, but I definitely try to avoid the smoke. I'm not there for the smoke. I'm there for the light, the warmth, the beauty of the fire, the conviviality, and the reliving of genetic memories going back hundreds of thousands of years. The smoke is the most inconvenient part of the experience, and can mostly be avoided by choosing where to sit. Why do we put chimneys on fireplaces? So we don't have to breathe the smoke!

A smoker is smoking FOR the smoke...and the high he gets from the drug that's in the smoke. That's unnatural, and it involves some pretty amazing mental gymnastics to find a way of justifying it.

Someone who knows how to build a good fire selects dry wood, so as to give off the least smoke possible. One does not build a fire in order to inhale smoke.