Evening lads,
I started smoking a pipe when I was about 15... Sherlock Holmes obsession. My friends bought me one for my birthday. All the older kids smoking tabs at the back of the bus, and me there with a pipe. Though we still had pipe adverts on TV in those days.
I remember the smell of the pack of Clan or Gold Block in my blazer pocket. Loved it. Went on to cigarettes and eventually gave them up.
Now Im back. Convinced of the benefits of the pipe as a meditative technology, and tobacco as a sacred plant.
I'd heard the idea of the introduction of tobacco and caffeine to Europe as correlating with the beginning of the scientific and industrial revolution, but had discarded it as an amusing rationalisation for smoking.
But as one gets older, one appreciates the wisdom of the ages... Bottom up vs. Top down. The most creative and intelligent have smoked pipes a lot longer than havent. The famous quote from Einstein:
“I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs,”
So anyway, here I am, approaching 50, realising that in our youth we are urged to eschew the past, but in our wiser years seek to safeguard that wisdom that has served us well as a civilisation. To respect the evolutionary dynamic, the time-tested over the mandated.
As I write, Brigham bent dublin with creme brulee.
Peace
