An Anniversary of Sorts

 It was about this time of year exactly 50 years ago I decided to take up pipe smoking.  Back then smoking a pipe was a lifestyle while now it is a hobby.  Even today it's not a lifestyle, but I devote more time to it now than I did then.  We weren't supposed to smoke on campus as I would be finished with school in March, but I decided my senior year was already just about over and there was no way they wouldn't let me finish just by my smoking a pipe.  Besides, I was already a rebel and took the risk.

I had just met my future wife and she thought the pipe was cool, even helping me to choose it.  I was one cool dude in my senior year.  But about this time of year I reflect on my life back then, and I must say my world was quite rosy then.  I was a cool senior in college.  My whole life was ahead of me.  According to my wife, my pipe added to my charm.  

That was about 50 years ago.  Do I see myself as an old guy smoking a pipe these days?  Sometimes I do.  Especially when I think of how old my kids are now.  I like that even still there's some kid left in those men.  And sometimes there still a young man left in me.  I've acquired many pipes and I no longer smoke the Apple flavored tobacco I smoked back then.  More than once I considered giving up my pipes.

These days my pipes are just a part of who I am.  They don't define me as they did back then.  But I'm still a rebellious hippie, as I was back then.  I didn't smoke an English tobacco as I do sometimes now.  Sometimes I can see myself as just another old guy who still smokes a pipe.  But my reason for pipe smoking a pipe has changed.  I meditate with a pipe these days.  It has become a tool.  Back then it was a fashion statement.

I have outgrown all that now.  But every pipe smoker keeps his first pipe.  I cherish mine and just don't smoke it much at all.  But it serves as a reminder of those halcyon days of my youth.  A lot has happened in those fifty years.  But sometimes I remember.  I no longer have the clothes I wore like bell bottom pants and the platform shoes.  But I have that first pipe.  

Such it is with age.  But I still look forward.  I have had two brushes with death the past decade or so, but I'm still alive.  I don't ask why.  Time reveals all answers to all our why questions.  I don't ask why about anything these days because all answers are because.  We all live because.  Life is a big because.  

I smoke a pipe because.  Mark Twain once said he was born to smoke a pipe.  I won't go that far.  I found pipe smoking to be a part of my relaxation.  It has become a part of my mental well-being.  I am at my very best alone with a pipe.  Could I give up my pipes?  I could, actually, but if you were to ask me if I WANT to give up my pipes, I'm not so sure I do.  They have been a part of me for fifty years.  

It might be more unhealthy for me to give them up more than it might be unhealthy for me to smoke them.  But this is just me.  I find a lot of Peace in a pipe.  I find a lot of comfort in a pipe.  But again, this might just be me.  Today it is my Tim West pipe with a bowl of Epiphany.  I'll smoke some Shwashbuckler later.  I thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave