*Tabacoritis (root
word: tabako)
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Before I quit smoking - also prior to the "Yosi Kadiri"
campaign - I was already a staunch anti-smoking activist. The sight
of anyone who smoked (except myself) offended me. I would be on a
prowl for jeepney passengers who lit up right in front of me. I would
ask them to "kill" their cigarettes by letting them know
I was upset with a disapproving frown on my face. Some would mutter:
" Eh pucha! Eh kung ayaw mo ng usok eh dapat mag taxi ka."
( Take a cab to elude the smoke) However, I chose to cover my nose
than to argue with those morons. I absolutely shun a fight black and
blue.
I detested cigarettes and I believed smoking it was an evil addiction.
Remember those posters that had Kamatayan (Grim Reaper) taking shape
at the butt end of a cigarette, and horror of all horrors a grim reminder
wirtten in smoke: "SMOKING KILLS"? How could I not pay attention?
The message struck me convincingly: evil was in the smokers eyes!
I was in 5th Grade when I had my first "high" from a "cigarette."
My friend since knee-high, Dennis (taga Sawang ini siya, ka
batch ko sa high school) asked me if I wanted to smoke "fake
cigarettes." I said yes. It occurred to me that I really had
no idea what to smoke believing that only real cigarettes kill. We
went into the wooded area in town where his house was armed with sheets
of bond paper (kinawat ko sa butangan ng akon Tatay) , Elmer's
glue (na kinawat ko sa bag ng akon nanay) (pilfered
from my father's personal belongings and from my mom's bag), cotton
- from the family's medicine cabinet - and a box of matches to pick,
tear and pound dried "sambong" leaves. Dennis masterfully
rolled some sticks and we lit up. Inhaling and puffing were strangers
to both of us, so we didn't but we ape the Marlboro man riding on
a horse or mimicked gangster characters in the movies. For the first
time in my life, I actually thought. "hey, this is pretty cool."
Oh yes. That experience gravitated to occasional puffs of Hope (pang
karpentero) and Philip (pang pokpok) but that was mostly
for show.
I was 17 when I decided to buy myself a pack. I wanted to find out
how it really felt to puff and inhale and savor the full flavor of
tobacoo. There was no peer pressure - not even from my friend Lyndie.
I just wanted to come face to face with something I loathed. Yes,
i can still smell the sweet-minty aroma of the freshly opened pack
of Marlboro menthol (pang sosyal daw)! I can also visualize
still, the Grim Reaper between my finger tips. I had power! I set
him on fire! And I loved it!
What is it that draws people to smoke and have them coming back for
more? True, nicotine is addicting but does this really cut it? I mean
why do people smoke? Ask any smoker why he does it and you will get
a whole range of replies - from the philosophical to the silly!
Tom Robbins, in "Still Life with Woodpecker" offers this
explanation:
" Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but
fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate
as we can get with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker
is the emodiment of Promotheus stealing fire from the Gods and bringing
it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun., to pacify
hell, to identify with the primordial spark, to feed on the marrow
of the volcano. It's not the tobacco we are after but fire. When we
smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance a ritual as ancient
as lightning. Does that mean that chain smokers are religious fanatics?
You must admit there's a similarity. The lung of the smoker is a naked
virigin thrown as sacrifice into the Godfire......."
For some, smoking is a reaffrimation of life. For others it may be
a milder way of treating one's mortality...an extreme sport fraught
with danger. When I think about smoking it is staying in control;
about testing one's limits. For me, a not-more-than-ten-sticks-a-day-smoker
- this is what it's all about.
Now, can I bum a stick please?
Just kiddin. I puffed my last stick in Davao two months ago and still
hoping that the Grim Repear will scare me with his clouds of smoke
and a death promise.
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