Cigars

Before I start, I just want to acknowledge that I know smoking the occasional cigar is not good for me. But a lot of people believe that eating red meat (or processed meat) is bad for you too. I believe that in most things, moderation is more important than abstinence.

I grew up in a rural farming/suburban area. It had been all farming but slowly housing was encroaching on the established farming operations.  For me, as a preteen and early teenager, this meant that the only kids close to my age were about two miles away (double or triple that to get to the next set). For me, that meant riding my bike and being away from home most of the day.

The four kids that were close to me (distance and age), I could split into two groups. Three of them consisted of two brothers (one a couple years older) and their couple year older neighbor. They were, I’m assuming due to the influence of the older two), more active and more “edgy”.

The other kid, Scott, was more of a loner and, even though he lived next door to the brothers, never interacted with them. One day, I was visiting with Scott and playing in the woods behind his house when he introduced me to a cigar tree (Catalpa - I googled it since I’ve always known it called a cigar tree). The pods are long and thin, similar to a cigar. When dried, you can light one end and suck the smoke through the pod. Being a preteen, I thought this was cool.

A few days later, I was with the other group and I told them about the cigar tree.  They replied that if I liked that, I’d like cigarettes. This started my smoking habit that continued until my early 40s (my mind is already wandering down several related messages so don’t be surprised if you see a part 4) when I finally gave up cigarettes. 

Being the stubborn person that my nature is, I switched to cigars. I rationalized that since I wasn’t inhaling the smoke and only occasionally smoking them, it was far better for me than the cigarettes.

I used the cigar to unwind. For example, I’d go to the garage after work to unwind after a stressful day or when I mowed the grass (I wasn’t allowed to smoke the cigars in the house).

One day, we were flying on vacation and our travel included a five hour layover in Las Vegas. Traveling, for me, is stressful so when I saw that the airport had a smoking lounge, I excused myself to go and smoke a cigar. I’m sure you can picture this room - one door, four walls, no chairs, several ashtrays, big fans in the ceiling sucking the air to vent outside. I walked in and was politely told that cigars were not allowed in the smoking lounge. It seems that some cigarette smokers might be offended by the smell of my fine cigar.

“He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.” - Psalm 7:15-16 ESV

“But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” - Ephesians 4:20-24

I’m sure that if you are not a smoker, you think both cigarettes and cigars are offensive.  I know some non-smokers who would agree that cigars have more offensive. However, I was still surprised that people in a smoking lounge would be offended by cigar smoke…