Lesson of the Week - My Pipe.

I recently purchased a tobacco pipe. It's a classic brown and black pipe that smokes pretty good for the comparatively modest price of $30 that I paid. I've found since buying this pipe, that I really enjoy smoking the occasional pipe/cigar/hookah, however the keyword there is “occasional”.

American culture teaches us to not be satisfied with anything. Were told to eat more, to drink more, to buy more, basically were told that the goal of life is to live hoarding as many things as possible in order to die with as many things as possible. I don't buy into this factory sealed logic at all. I believe that there is an art to living, a balance, an order to be obtained. I think the key to living is living a lifestyle of moderation. Everything can be bad in excess, anything can be bad in limitation, but by seeking balance, we can find the art of living.

I believe this idea of limiting ourselves, to better ourselves, is a lost art. Modern advertisers and companies have succeeded at completely strip mining the American consumers of all their needs and are now given no choice but to continue to sell the idea of never being satisfied to keep us coming back to the mall, to the buffet, to the bar, and to the television. I reject this state of our culture. I am pretty young, but I still remember people growing their own fruit, canning it, and storing it in the basement. Those people who remember the simplicity of life and what things are truly necessities.

Basically, when we drink too much we become dependent slobs who throw up on furniture. When we eat too much, we get fat and develop serious health problems. When we watch too much TV, we grow disconnected with the rest of the world.

Back to my tobacco pipe. I bought the pipe and I was super excited to smoke it. I smoked it after leaving “Pipes and Pleasures”, I smoked it while driving, I smoked it before dinner, after dinner, and twice later at a party. Sure enough, the next day my mouth not only tasted like crap, but it felt like crap. I successfully burnt my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and my lower lip, which made eating an aggravating chore. Did I enjoy my pipe in moderation? No. Was it in excess? Yes. Were there consequences? Yes. Will I probably make the same mistake again? Probably. But you get my point.