Whenever I am in Europe, it truly dumfounds me the amount of people that still are smoking cigarettes. I mean, the information is out there. It is really-really bad for you. It will kill you. And, it not only hurts you but all of those around you, via second-hand smoke. Plus, by throwing all of your used cigarette butts on the ground, it truly pollutes the environment. But yet, there they are. Everyone is smoking.
 
I spend the last week or so in Berlin. And, there it was again. Everyone smoking. Many a person was walking down the street with a cigarette in their hand. Blowing their smoke into the air. Polluting the air of everyone else. I saw people eating in cafes, a cigarette in one hand and a fork in the other. I mean come on! You have to take a drag between every bite? I even saw this one very pretty young couple sitting on the banks of the Spree, as concrete as they are, making out. The girl half of the couple had a cigarette in her hand. Why?
 
I remember back in my younger days, when I would meet a girl that I liked and she smoked. Man, that was a horrible flavor in her mouth when we would kiss. I’m sure I mentioned that in some piece of poetry or something, way back in the way back when, Cigarette Kisses. Horrible!
 
Here in the U.S… And, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we are better or anything. But, there is many a city where a person cannot smoke on the streets in public anymore. Restaurants and even bars, forget about it. No-go. And, that’s a good thing!
 
I mean, just look at the skin of a person who has smoked throughout their life. Compare them to someone of the same age, as they move deep into their life, and the difference is obvious.
 
My mother who smoked since she was sixteen had horrible lines in her face when she reached her later years. Compare her to my aunt and uncle who were both many years older than her, they looked so young for their age. No smoking. No lines.  
 
I don’t know??? Maybe you can explain it to me??? I just don’t get it??? All of the facts are out there. Cigarettes kill. Yet, so man people are still smoking.
 
They strongly aided in my father’s death from a massive heart attack at the age of only forty-eight. My father-in-law literally died from lung cancer at sixty. And, I know of several other people who died either directly from or passed away way too young at least in part due to their smoking. It’s not cool. It doesn’t make one look cool. It provides no true benefit to anyone’s life. All a person who smokes is doing is slowing killing themselves and hurting the life or others and the environment while throwing away their money and putting it in the pockets of the tobacco companies.

Smoking has been proven to be an addiction that is very hard to break free from. Why do it? Yet, like in Berlin, virtually everyone I saw had a cigarette in their hand or was waiting to have a puff. Why?
 
Did someone not get the memo?