Lifestyle?!!

[marcel]

I have recently started buying more than the occasional because I discovered Boveda packs and Tupperware are a cheap way of creating an effective humidor.
The more I learned about cigars, I kept hearing the word lifestyle, "the cigar lifestyle".
Defined a lifestyle refers to the way in which one lives but I found it curious regarding cigars. Do they mean like Tony Soprano or Winston Churchill?
I've come to the conclusion that it means one is able to carve out enough time from a busy life to enjoy a cigar. The same can be said for pipe smoking but that's just something I do, I've never considered it a lifestyle but I suppose it is. One never hears about the "cigarette lifestyle", pounding a heater on your break isn't exactly asperational in terms of lifestyle.
So do any of you guys consider yourself living the pipe smoking lifestyle?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Nope, just something I do.

 

[warren]

Nope. I never have to take time or make time to smoke a pipe or cigar. It's just something I do to insure I never have enough money and therefore, get complacent.

 

[virginialover]

I would call it a hobby as I'm not a nicotine addict, I have more pipe tobacco than I could possibly smoke. A lifestyle would be a habit and mostly how outsiders would perceive me.

 

[mikethompson]

Can't really say its a lifestyle for me. I enjoy a pipe once week and have a few pipes and cellared time to last into the next few years. I've been on this forum long enough to see a diverse group of guys whos only similarity is there interest in pipes. I don't know what the 'lifestyle' would look like, everyone is different.

 

[aldecaker]

There's a lot of marketing hype in the cigar world, and throwing around meaningless phrases like "the cigar lifestyle" is a perfect example of it. Like most marketing hype, it is a bunch of bunk.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

This makes me think, and I’m not very comfortable doing that. I mean if lifestyle is making time to smoke, then sure, because I am always smoking. And, if by hobby, you mean I love to learn more about tobaccos and the pipes and their makers, then sure. I am also addicted to smoking, and taking pictures of my pipes, and spending money on all of this stuff. Overall, I think I just have a passion for all things pipey. I mean, there’s no aspect of the pipeworld that doesn’t interest me. It’s fun, and no one gets hurt. Well, unless I break a pipe. Then it makes me sad.

 

[mayfair70]

the pipe smoking lifestyle

I don't know what this means to me, and that is the crux of it, in my mind. I do not equate a habit with a lifestyle. I have a habit of picking my nose, but, thankfully, there is no Nose-Picking lifestyle I am aware of. As a musician, I know there are musicians' lifestyles which vary among genres, age, levels of proficiency, pay grades, women(or men) etc. I would say at the intersection of those variables, as they apply to me, I have a particular musician's lifestyle. I've tried to look at pipe smoking much the same way. It is a part of my life serving many functions stemming from many passions and goals, the intersection of which I would call my Pipe-Smoking lifestyle. I would define a hobby as a leisure activity done for enjoyment but with no real redeeming fiscal or social value. But, smoking is much more than that to me.
I started smoking a pipe because I found an old beautifully made pipe in a house I moved into. I kept smoking because it could easily cost less than cigarettes, and usually tasted profoundly better once I got the hang of it. It became psychologically and emotionally beneficial when I realized it had a meditative and problem solving aspect derived from quieting my mind as I puffed away watching the birds and squirrels from my porch. Then I became interested in briar and tobacco history, physics of smoking, chemistry of tobacco curing and their additives, and biographies of pipe smokers whose lives were heavily influenced by it. I had a young guitarist tell me a couple weeks ago that he thought it was cool that I smoked a pipe. A young drummer expressed interest in various pipe tobaccos and I began to share what I knew with him. All these things come together to form my personal pipe "lifestyle" but it is as nebulous and intangible to me now as sex was to my thirteen year old self. I cannot separate these strands from my life, nor can I aggregate them into one thing.
I have to conclude that I don't have a pipe lifestyle; I have a life with a pipe. ::

 

[jpmcwjr]

When I smoke my pipe in my silk robe in the study of my country estate, I am effecting—and affecting— a lifestyle. Otherwise, it's just a thing I do. But I had to sell the country house to pay for all the Penzance and Stonehaven I bought.

 

[bonanzadriver]

I'm sitting up in my mancave enjoying a few bowls with my son Nick.
I stumbled across this thread and have enjoyed the responses thus far.
As I've stated, in previous posts, I've been smoking cigars and pipes since 1982.
Although I enjoy golfing as often as possible, it seems that I don't get to do it as often as I would like. I used to golf 4 or 5 days a week, smoking 5 or 6 cigars a round. Nowadays it seems that I only get out on the course 1 to 2 times a week, still enjoying my 5 or 6 Arturo Fuente's.
I've never considered cigar or pipe smoking a "Lifestyle". It's just something I enjoy and make time and spend money to do.
ymmv

 

[brian64]

I’d say if the word lifestyle has become associated with cigars and pipes it’s because unlike in bygone days, one cannot just smoke anytime, anywhere like people used to...on the job, in restaurants, in theaters, on airplanes, in stores, etc, etc. In fact probably the majority of smokers cannot even smoke in their own homes, either because they rent or because a spouse or other housemates will not allow it.
So in order to regularly smoke a pipe or large cigars, many people would be forced to intentionally plan and structure a portion of their life around it...to find a time and place for it. This is why cigarettes are so much more convenient...which is the great irony. All of the smoking prohibitions just drive a lot of smokers to choose cigarettes.

 

[brightleaf]

I do have an image in my mind of a pipe lifestyle. One where a person defines there presence with the pipe and has made it a large part of their life. Brian64 makes an important point however, it is hard to integrate pipe smoking with any social image of ourselves, when society works to banish that image. With cigars and lifestyle, I imagine a world of greater wealth and of showing off that wealth. Almost like rolling up twenty dollar bills and demonstrating to those around you, that you have money to burn. Not trying to knock cigars, I enjoy them when I can. While buying cheap cigars is possible, I don't think many people would consider the smoker of them representing the "cigar lifestyle."
I think anyone can have pipe smoking as part of their life, but as far as a social message, I think pipe smokers are too diverse a group. I suppose I have some notion that it is associated with thoughtfulness, but I feel certain someone is eager to demonstrably prove me wrong on that point. :P

 

[unkleyoda]

To me the term 'lifestyle' is something the scenesters or hipsters say. Like playing dress up. To me pipe smoking is something I do. Is it part of my life? Yes. Is it a 'lifestyle'? I really couldn't care less. I don't need another label. Lifestyle is a buzz word from and for advertisers, trying to sell you something that reeks of romanticism, to make your pathetic life more meaningful.

 

[Chasing Embers]

it is hard to integrate pipe smoking with any social image of ourselves

:?:
That couldn't be less true. I neither know, nor work with very many non smokers, and unless I'm asleep, I look like this whether off by myself, or around others.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Lifestyle 1: A set of attitudes, habits or possessions associated with a particular person or group.
Lifestyle 2: Such attitudes etc regarded as fashionable or desirable.
Lifestyle 3: A luxurious manner of living.
I just smoke a pipe, I eat a meal, I go to bed.....it's just something I do.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[crashthegrey]

I tend to agree that the use of "lifestyle" is an attempt at a definition by advertisers and hipsters. I may be wrong, but at the end of the day, I smoke a pipe, I listen to hours of podcasts about pipes nearly daily, I make pipes, I collect pipes and tobacco, I read about them, I talk about them, sometimes I drive family and friends nuts talking about pipes, I've converted more than one friend to a pipe smoker. But no, it's not a lifestyle, it's a hobby, maybe an obsession, but it is not my way of life. It enhances my lifestyle at best. My lifestyle is being a full time employee and running a small farm at home. My lifestyle is spending time with my children, butchering my own food, spending time outdoors. The pipe may be there, but it doesn't define that.

 

[aldecaker]

I guess my lifestyle, when you come right down to it, is "working stiff tryin' to make it". I wish my lifestyle was "leisurely pipe and cigar smoker". Sounds like fun.

 

[mso489]

I first became aware of the term "lifestyle" some time in the early-early 1970's. It had a sort of ring to it and became used and over-used, such that thoughtful speakers and writers had to examine what it meant. I soon came to feel that it was a place-filler that meant very little. It usually indicates that a speaker or writer won't delve into the subject and context enough to describe what it is they really mean. Usually, if you probe the reference, you find it denotes a specific person or group that could be defined much more individually and specifically, and effectively, by giving just a little more detail. Recent college graduates living in Brooklyn. Retired men who enjoy visiting with their buddies at the VFW. Eight-year-old girls who have already discovered classical music. Whatever it is. These aren't "lifestyles," whatever that may mean, but particular people or groups behaving in distinctive ways. Except in a few rare cases, the word lifestyle is a cop-out for not digging a little deeper to know and describe what a certain group is doing. So smoking a pipe might be part of some lives, or groups, or activities, but to say it is a lifestyle is a collapse of observational powers and rationality.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Today I had one of those horrible day when I didn't have no possibility to smoke not a single bowlfulls but only two mini cigars and Basta,but come this evening I'll sure fix that,finally I'm getting to realize what its means to be addicted to nicotine,

 

[saltedplug]

Filling a need in the marketplace and trying to fill it in a way to make the maximum profit is an admirable pursuit of business. But creating a need and filling it is not admirable but predatory, and there are far too many businesses, even in our little corner of the world, who are such hunters.
I had a falling out with one of them which turned on their right to record my contact information and use to "reach out" to me to close a sale. They were willing to remove my information, but should I order again, they would record it again. Tell me how it is that against my wishes business has a right to my information and to use it to spam me? On the one hand business has the right to market their products, but on the other I have the right to to tell them to cease and desist. In this matter, I clearly win.
But given that greed, by human nature, invades the needful activity of making a living, business is rather slow in understanding this, or unwilling to do anything at all.
So yes, the cigar world is full of sales talk, but so is the pipe world.