Why did I start smoking? Because I wanted to. My father, brother and sister and my best friends smoked, and it proved to myself and my mother (with whom I never got along) that no matter how she screamed and slapped and over-controlled, she couldn't dictate how I'd spend every moment of my life.

I'd take my dad's Colts or Export A no-filters (*choke* *gasp*) into the forest and practice inhaling alone, so I could smoke with my friends and not throw up. I caught on quick. I was 10 years old.

By the time I was 12 I was buying my own whenever I had the money. Back then cigarettes were 65 cents a pack . There were no age limits on buying them. They were advertised on radio TV and billboards, just like booze and chocolate bars. Most people I knew smoked, and nothing was said about health risks.

Why do I continue to smoke? Because after 35 years I still enjoy it. It's quite a habit. It's part of who I am. It stimulates when I'm tired, so my thinking is quicker and more alert. It mellows me when I'm stressed. It's a comforting distraction when I feel depressed. Nicotine is both a mental and emotional stimulant.

Best of all, smoking keeps most people whose company I don't care for FAR AWAY from me! The natives used Tobacco not only for prayer and as 'legal tender' (trading commodity), but as a "smudge" - a cleansing incense to remove negativity from a person or a place before ceremony - usually combined with sage, sweetgrass, and cedar.

I've chosen not to smoke indoors for a few years now, so there's no more disgusting smell in all my clothes or yellow streaks running down the walls of my house. I've never had asthma or allergies or any other illness (except pneumonia when I was 7, from running barefoot races in the snow). I rarely even get colds or flus, and when I do it's usually because I've spent too much time in close quarters with some sickly non-smoker when I'm already over-tired.

I enjoy exercise and make sure I have at least an hour of it outdoors in the fresh air, several times a week -- be it fast-walking, bike riding or practicing martial arts. For many years I was a runner, but had to give that up because of impact damage to my knees, hips and lower back.

I raised 3 kids. They are all healthy, and none of them smoke.

The only reason I'd quit today is financial. That's a biggie, and someday when I'm ready, I'll put 'em down and get a lot richer. It would really help if people would lay off the preaching and propoganda. I see right through all of it! Just thinking I might become anything like most of the wheezing, sickly, asthmatic, allergy-ridden, overweight, stressed out holier-than-thou non-smokers I know is quite the "con" to quitting, in my own mind.

So there's my 2 cents worth. I'm going out for a smoke now.

Lock and Load!

daylia