Pack a pipe

I am not, by nature, a smoker. I can count on one hand the number of cigarettes I've tried in my life. They're really not that pleasant, the smell clings and lingers, etc.

That said, there is something a bit deeper to a good cigar or a pipe. Poking around some of the pipe sites online (because pipes are art, and fascinating to look at), I found this article. Good reading.

Now, unlike cigarettes, pipes are a) sacramental b) delicious c) much less harmful d) not addicting and e) packed with class. Men need to recover the lost art of pipe-smoking to a) feel more manly b) relearn the experience of fellowship c) connect with their great, ancestral, pipe-smoking past d) learn to contemplate and e) (if they are cigarette smokers) to replace addiction with ritual.

My pipe comes out a handful of times every year; it's a wonderful relaxation on a summer's evening to smoke and listen to the cicadas as the sky slips into dark.