Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

 A pipe is simply different.  My wife commented on yesterday's post saying there was something romantic about a man lighting a pipe with a match.  And she's right.  There is a kind of romance about matches because matches have been around for so long.  I had other posts ready for this morning, but my wife's comment got me thinking.  Which may or may not be so good, but lighting a pipe with a match is what I did for years. I refused to light cigars with a lighter.  I always used matches for cigars, when I smoked cigars.  There is something old school about matches.  Lighters were too often associated with cigarette smoking, but matches were always preferred by pipe smokers.  It's only been fairly recently that pipe smokers preferred lighters.  I consider myself a fairly old guy who likes old school stuff.  I don't get nostalgic about the old days too much, but old school stuff has a certain appeal.   I'm not into class...

There has been a debate among pipe enthusiasts as to whether to just use matches or a lighter to light a pipe.  I had a conversation with my brother-in-law the other day about my wife, his sister, lighting my pipes for me with matches.  It was probably a few times, but men lighting cigarettes for women or a woman lighting a man's pipe was a sign of affection.  As I said I only recall she did this a few times.  However, this is something that has changed.  No one lights anything for anyone these days.   But that conversation got me thinking as I showed him my pipe lighter I received as a Christmas gift from my one of my sons.  He asked if I had a lot of lighters.  I said I didn't because I had almost always used matches.  I never owned a real pipe lighter until recently.  I had a few over the years, but I always reverted back to matches thinking lighters were just simply too much trouble.   But 50 years or so ago, a woman l...

  Women have won the right to vote for only a hundred years.  And my writing about men's clubs yesterday got me thinking.  At the one pipe shop I frequented back in the day, there were women who smoked both pipes and cigars.  In fact, the women's movement included women who felt they had a right to smoke as men did.  And they flaunted that right.  It has not just been men who smoked pipes and cigars. I may have written about the pipe above before, and if I have, I apologize.   It's called Gingers Favorite by Savinelli and sells for about $130 on Smoking Pipes with a retail shop selling it for about $170.  I'll give credit to Smoking Pipes for the photo above. The Parker pen company used to sell a ball-point pen just for women, but these days a pen is a pen.  Ginger's Favorite is for a woman's smaller hands, but women can smoke anything they wish these days.  However, a woman generally might prefer a smaller cigar or a smaller pipe....

 Mark Twain often visited a club in New Haven, Connecticut, where he gathered with distinguished gentlemen the world over.  These clubs were called Gentlemen's clubs for a reason.  Distinguished gentlemen would gather as such clubs for drinks and polite conversations of topics of interest.  I wondered if his club in New Haven still existed.  But today, such a name is given to strip joints.   New Haven has a lot of strip joints as I now understand, but such gentlemen's clubs are now cigar bars or the local place where cigars are smoked without restrictions.  But evidently the old style gentlemen's clubs no longer exist.  I find that rather sad, but things have certainly changed over the years.  Such conversations today are held in strip joints, which might explain a lot with clubs banning women no longer existing.   Such clubs today might be an exclusive country club where wealthy women are just as accepted.  But gentlemen'...

 I always close each post with a few words about my pipe and tobacco.  I'm not an evangelist for smoking pipes.  I don't write to influence anyone to smoke a pipe.  It's that I am almost always smoking a pipe when writing.  But why?  First of all, I happen to own a lot of pipes, but a pipe, secondly, and foremost, is my "thinking" tool.  I think best smoking a pipe.  Is there a reason for this?  Does a pipe have magical writing powers?   No.  Many famous writers have smoked pipes, although not so common among writers today.  But that is more about the society we live in today.  There simply are so relatively few of us who smoke a pipe.  I've watched several vids made by preachers who will smoke a pipe and make videos about this hobby Sunday afternoons.  It's still done, but not as openly as before.  A pipe smoker simply loves to relax with a pipe.   I am no exception.  I'm more relaxed wi...

 If I could live my life over again, would I want to?  There short answer is that it is what it is.  No.  I'm fascinated by the concept of time travel, but dreaming of another time removes us from the right now.  In my own Spirituality, the present moment is really all that matters, because it's all we really have.  I can wish for some things to be different, but wishing takes us to a dream world which does not exist.   I find it difficult at times to remain focused on the right now, for everyone has those nagging "what if" questions.  And if we could go back with knowledge of our future, we might come back and wish for something different.  It's like the movie Ground Hog Day.  If we do it enough times we'll get it right.  Thinking about the future causes anxieties and focusing too much on the past causes depression.  Focusing on the right now is balance.  The past teaches us so we can apply our knowledge to the futur...

 I have readers of this blog who aren't in the least bit religious, or as I say I am about myself, Spiritual.  But you see, I believe in Angels.  There is no way I can deny this as a fact.  So, for me, Angels just might be my obsession.  I am obsessed by Angels.  I can't deny this because this is a fact in my life.  I KNOW Angels exist.  I've tried to avoid anything religious in this blog, but Angels are a part of that which defines me as the person I am today.  They are a part of my Spirituality.  Angels always leave with Peace left behind.  I'm always connecting with that Peace in all things. I won't apologize for this, but although I always believed, it took more than belief that I needed as proof.  That proof came to me in the form of Angels, who at that time occupied a human body, but their presence left me do doubt they were Angels.  This is mostly why I am the person I am today.  My Angels define who I am....