Dear Smokers

Dear smokers-  Why do you hate fresh air?  This is a question that I have posed to my dad, a smoker since the age of 16, every summer when I take a walk with him around my parent’s property.  I feel newly invigorated to ask the question because within the past few months I have returned to city living and on my two block walk from the bus stop to my office building, there is not one time that I was not assaulted with the putrid stench of second hand smoke. 

Locations where this smell tends to congregate include aforementioned bus stops, doorways, outside of buildings and in a more sporadic form, we are forced to inhale it from passersby.  Let’s talk about bus stops first though.  I do not know what it is about waiting for a bus that means you should light up a cancer stick, but that does appear to be the trend.  I am not sure if the percentage of bus riders who smoke is greater than the regular population, or that boredom coupled with standing still in one location outdoors is simply too much of an enticement for the occasional smoker.  Does this place and time just compel you smokers to throw caution to the wind and bum one from a neighbor?  This may be the case but, I often find myself in proximity to a smoke cloud when going to and coming from  the city.  Next, let’s talk about those doorways.  Smoke is no longer welcome in-doors, in less you are a private club that does not sell substantial food, or something of that nature...  The clever smoker has consequently stepped through the front or side door on to the sidewalk and lit up.  It is after all cold or, raining or, hot or, something...  Walking more than five feet away from the door is therefore an unheard  of notion,.  This placement does, however, make it difficult for nonsmokers to breath in the fresh air that stepping out of a door usually provided.  We nonsmokers also can no longer take in that last breath of fresh air when entering into our office buildings.  Finally to the passer by.  I often pass by the hurrying, stressed smoker, or the jovial friendly smoker and in either case, I am equally repulsed by the trail of smoke that they leave in their wake.  They make me think back to conversations with my Dad and to consider my question, of why do you hate fresh air?  Walking in a crisp day through the fall or spring air is one of the most relaxing things that I can think of.  Why would you smokers want to muddy that experience with a cloud of smoke? 

Should we segregate?  Restaurants through the 80s and 90s had smoking sections, but as reported by a plack that we once spotted hanging on the wall of a local eatery, “a smoking section in a restaurant is like a peeing section in a pool.” 

I know that as a nonsmoker, there are some elements of smoking that I will just simply never understand.  I don’t understand the thrill, I don’t understand the allure and I definitely don’t understand the accompanying stench.  When I say that I am not a smoker, I mean, I have never smoked a single cigarette.  Not a puff, not a drag.  This being said, I am a big believer in personal freedom and if sigs are your thing, more power, just try to keep them to yourself.  Your consideration is much appreciated!