True Addicts

Yesterday I made an admonishing gesture to a friend who is still smoking a pack or more of cigarettes each day. Waving my finger at him in passing, I reflected on his surprising outrage at being called an addict by one of our mutual acquaintances. A smoker myself for twenty years before giving up cigarettes, I certainly consider cigarette smokers addicts. Only an addict would go to such extraordinary lengths to obtain the source of …

…and quells his justified panic. "I'll give it up before I'm 40," or "I'll cut down and eventually quit," are the kinds of thoughts that rationalize his next dose of death. <Tab/><Tab/> So as I pass my friend huddled with other smokers outside in January, sucking greedily on the thin cylinder that is shortening his life, I wonder how he cannot see himself for what he is.